Ep 27. The Constant Loop: How Nanoparticles and the Environment Affect Each Other

Sustainable Nano

English - November 02, 2018 15:00 - 21 minutes - 19.7 MB - ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
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Previous Episode: Ep 26. Nanomaterials and Renewable Energy: From Solar Panels to Machine Learning

Next Episode: Ep 28. Who's Not In the Room and Why Not? Inclusivity and Bias Across Class Backgrounds in College Education

Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LCO) is an important nanomaterial used in batteries, but little is known about what happens when it gets exposed to the environment. In this episode we interview Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology graduate student Liz Laudadio, who was the first author on a recent paper about what happens to LCO when it gets exposed to phosphates in water. We discuss why phosphates are important and next steps to understanding potential environmental impacts of nanomaterials: "It's a constant loop of, How do nanoparticles affect the environment? How does the environment affect nanoparticles?"

Left: Liz Laudadio working with an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS), which was used in this study to quantify how much phosphate adsorbed to LCO nanoparticles. Center/Right: Transmission Electron Microscope images of LCO nanosheets (from Laudadio et al. 2018, used with permission from the American Chemical Society)

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