Water-soluble quantum dots obtained through ligand exchange are widely applicable for biological imaging and marking, LEDs, and photovoltaics. Lipoic acid (LA) was reduced to dihydrolipoic acid (DHLA) using 365-nm soft UV light in a process known as photoligation, and ligand exchange with dodecanethiol-capped CuInS₂-ZnS core-shell quantum dots occurred. The reaction...
The hydrogen economy is a possible component of an energy future based on use of alternative and renewable energy sources, deemed desirable from the general consensus of the worldwide community that we do not want to further exacerbate the climate problems that we have introduced over the last two centuries...
Meeting the energy demands of the future is one of the most important challenges facing the engineering community today. An example of this problem is transportation fuels. Most of the current transportation fuels are composed of petroleum hydrocarbons. Finding a viable alternative is important given the potential scarcity of these...
Finding renewable sources of agricultural fertilizer will be necessary to ensure a stable food supply for future generations. Phosphorus is of particular concern, since mining phosphate rock is the main source and reserves are forecasted to deplete in the next 50 – 200 years. Human urine contains substantial amounts of...
There is significant interest in utilizing microalgae as a source for biofuels. Diatoms are a class of single-celled microalgae which make silica cell walls and require dissolved silicon as a substrate for cell division. Manipulation of soluble silicon delivery to the culture offers a route to control cell cycle and...
The Brownian motion of micron-scale particles reflects the viscoelastic response of the local environment of the medium. Tracking the thermal fluctuations of these particles is a measure of the rheology of the material at the microscopic scale. This technique is called passive microrheology. Microrheology has been developed to assess the...
This research investigates the physiological and transcriptional responses of Nitrosomonas europaea when exposed to chlorinated aromatic compounds and heavy metals under varying environmental conditions. It was found that transcriptional responses of identified sentinel genes correlate well with nitrification inhibition. Sorption of metals to biomass was also investigated and found not...
Sepsis is an inflammatory reaction occurring throughout the human body to infections caused by bacteria, fungi, and or other forms of pathogens. It is essential to find an alternative treatment method for sepsis, to lessen the dependence on antibiotics. Hemoperfusion is an absorbent device that removes select targets from blood,...
This study investigated learning in three engineering student clubs at a large public university. This included a small-sized chemical reaction car competition, a large-sized formula racing team, and an international humanitarian engineering club. Research methods included observations of work sessions (N=27) and semi-structured interviews (N=19). Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory...
Zero valent iron nanoparticles effectively remediate groundwater contaminants due to their catalytic properties and enhanced surface area. However, these properties contribute to particle agglomeration, decreasing their effectiveness. In this study, we examined the effect of two stabilizing agents (gum arabic (GA) and sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)) on particle stability, toxicity,...