Category Archives: environment

Students from Nakoda Oyade Education Centre and scientists at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) use science to help bison

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It’s known as Paskwâwimostos – ᐸᐢᑳᐧᐃᐧᒧᐢᑐᐢ – The Bison Project and is being conducted at Canada’s only synchrotron, the Canadian Light Source (CLS) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Here’s more from a November 24, 2022 CLS news release (also received via email), Note: Links have been removed,

Bison have long held a prominent place in the culture of the Carry the Kettle Nakoda Nation, located about 100 kms east of Regina. The once-abundant animals were a vital source of food and furs for the ancestors of today’s Carry the Kettle people.

Now, high school students from Nakoda Oyade Education Centre at Carry the Kettle are using synchrotron imaging to study the health of a local bison herd, with an eye to protecting and growing their numbers.

Armin Eashappie, a student involved in the Bison Project, says the work she and her classmates are doing is a chance to give back to an animal that was once integral to the very existence of her community. “We don’t want them to go extinct, says Eashappie. “They helped us with everything. We got our tools, our clothes, our food from them. We used every single part of the buffalo, nothing was left behind…they
even helped us make our homes – the teepees – we used the hides to cover them up.”

Eashappie’s classmate, Leslie Kaysaywaysemat, says that if their team can identify items the bison are eating that are not good for their health, these could potentially be replaced by other, healthier items. “We want to preserve them and make sure all generations can see how magnificent these creatures are,” he says.

The students, who are participating in the CLS’s Bison Project, gathered samples of bison hair, soil from where the animals graze, and plants they feed on, then analyzed them using the IDEAS beamline at the CLS. The Bison Project, coordinated by the Education group of the CLS, integrates Traditional Knowledge and mainstream science in a transformative research experience for First Nation, Métis, and Inuit
students.

Timothy Eashappie, Elder for the Bison Project, says it’s “awesome” that the students can use the Canadian Light Source machine to learn more about an animal that his people have long taken care of on the prairies. “That’s how we define ourselves – as
Buffalo People,” says Eashappie. “Since the beginning of time, they gave themselves to us, and now these young people are finding out how important these buffalo are to them, because it preserves their language, their culture, and their way of life. And now it’s our turn to take care of the bison.”

Once they’ve completed their analysis, the students will share their findings with the Chief and Council for Carry the Kettle.

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The Canadian Light Source (CLS) is a national research facility of the University of Saskatchewan and one of the largest science projects in Canada’s history. More than 1,000 academic, government and industry scientists from around the world use the CLS every year in innovative health, agriculture, environment, and advanced materials research.

The Canada Foundation for Innovation [CFI], Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council [NSERC], Canadian Institutes of Health Research [CIHR], the Government of Saskatchewan, and the University of Saskatchewan fund CLS operations.

You can find more about the CLS Bison Project here,

The Bison Project integrates Traditional Knowledge (TK) and mainstream Science in an experience that engages First Nation, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) teachers, students, and communities. The Bison Project creates a unique opportunity to incorporate land-based hunting and herd management, synchrotron science, mainstream science principles and TK.

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I found a bit more information about bison and their return in a November 23, 2020 article by Mark A. Bonta for The Daylighter,

For ecologists and environmentalists, it’s more than just a story about the return of a keystone species. 

The bison, it turns out, is an animal that maintains and restores the prairie.

Ecological restoration

Unlike cattle, bison are wallowers, so these powerful animals’ efforts to rid themselves of insect parasites, by rubbing their hide and rolling around on the ground, actually create permanent depressions, called bison wallows, in the landscape. 

These create fertile ground for diverse plant species — and the animals that rely on them. 

Bison also rub against woody plants and kill them off, keeping the prairies open, while their dung fertilizes the soil.

Iconic species like the greater prairie-chicken and the prairie dog all benefit from the restoration of bison. 

Bison herds have also proved highly adaptive to the “new,” post-colonial ecology of the Great Plains.

They are adapting to hunting season, for example, by delaying their migration. This keeps them out of harm’s way — but also increases the risk of human-bison conflicts.

Bonta’s article provides a little more detail about the mixed feelings that the return of the bison have engendered.

A new recipe for lignin nanoparticles

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A flexible film that does not absorb a drop of water. Photo: Aalto University / Sahar Babaeipour

A November 8, 2022 news item on phys.org announces a new material made of nanocellulose (Note: Links have been removed),

The Bioproduct Chemistry team at Aalto University [Finland] have designed a sustainable method to produce strong and flexible cellulosic films that incredibly maintain their strength even when wet.

The material is made through an innovative combination of wood-based and biodegradable polymers without any chemical modification, harnessing the maximum benefit of each component. For the co-authors in this study, sustainability is a significant motivator in understanding the chemistry of how these materials could work together and developing materials of tomorrow with the functionality we expect today.

A November 7, 2022 Aalto University press release, which originated the news item, explains the interest in cellulose and provides more detail about the research,

Cellulosic materials, which come from the cell walls of plants, have emerged as attractive, sustainable replacements for traditional plastics. However, the moisture sensitivity of cellulose and its incompatibility with many soft hydrophobic polymers are challenges to their widespread application.

From a materials design perspective, gaining the benefit of both hydrophilic cellulose and hydrophobic polymers at the same time without any chemical treatment of raw materials is mystifying. But what if we could engineer their interface with a third component, having favorable interactions with both cellulose and soft polymers such as polycaprolactone (PCL)? To achieve this goal, the team demonstrated that lignin nanoparticles with their well-defined morphology and active surface sites can interact with both cellulose, in this case cellulose nanofibrils, and PCL and act as a compatibilizer between hydrophilic cellulose and hydrophobic PCL. Although it looks complex, the solution is simple.

First, PCL dissolved in an organic solvent is mixed with the lignin nanoparticles in water. The lignin particles assembles at the oil water interface and stabilize the emulsion. Emulsions stabilizes with solid particles are called Pickering emulsions. This emulsion is then mixed with aqueous CNF suspension prior to film formation.  This Pickering emulsion strategy creates an even dispersion of a polymer within the cellulose network, increasing the wet strength and water resistance of the composite, meanwhile retaining all the positive characteristics of the cellulose fibers or fibrils. The outcomes are excellent:  the developed composite has a higher strength than pure CNF nanopaper or pure polymer in both dry and wet conditions, even after fully immersing it in water for a day. ‘When the film was taken out of the water, it looked exactly the same as when it was put into the water,’ says Kimiaei. The reason for this is that the hydrophobic polymer, with the aid of the lignin nanoparticles is now covering the cellulose surface protecting it from the water.

The composite revealed wet strength up to 87 MPa, the highest obtained wet strength for cellulosic composites developed without any direct covalent surface modifications or synthetic additives. Furthermore, this strategy added additional functionality, such as UV shielding and antioxidant properties to the developed composites, making them interesting for packaging applications.

The team at Aalto University in Finland, a country that arguably has the world’s leading experts in the forestry industry, is focused on making the most of these natural and industrial resources. ‘Building the future with forests requires a commitment to sustainable forest management and creating additional value beyond the typical biorefinery and pulp and paper industry,’ says co-author Erfan Kimiaei, a doctoral candidate at Aalto University, School of Chemical Engineering. ‘Understanding the interfacial chemistry of wood components can be the key to getting the most out of this valuable resource in building the sustainable future,’ professor Monika Österberg adds.

For experts in the field, this approach opens new possibilities to eliminate the need for cellulose chemical modification to impart new functionalities, promoting the sustainable use of natural resources from the forest. Furthermore, this research offers a generic foundation for combining hydrophilic cellulose with varied hydrophobic soft polymers to design multifunctional cellulose-based composites using only biodegradable polymers and lignocellulosic materials, taking a big step toward fully sustainable use of natural resources. As a follow up, the researchers are now exploring a broad framework to identify the sustainability of this early-stage technology in environmental and economic aspects by integrating techno-economic and life cycle assessments.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Lignin Nanoparticles as an Interfacial Modulator in Tough and Multi-Resistant Cellulose–Polycaprolactone Nanocomposites Based on a Pickering Emulsions Strategy by Erfan Kimiaei, Muhammad Farooq, Rafael Grande, Kristoffer Meinander, Monika Österberg. Advanced Materials Interfaces Volume 9, Issue 27 September 22, 2022 2200988 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202200988 First published online: 25 August 2022

This paper is open access.

Plant fibers (nanocellulose) for more sustainable devices

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Thank you to Junichiro Shiomi and the University of Tokyo for this image,

Caption: An artist’s interpretation of the way natural cellulose fibers are combined to form the CNF [cellulose nanofiber] yarn, and a magnified section showing the nanoscopic rod-shaped filaments within the yarn bundle. Credit: ©2022 Junichiro Shiomi

The research into cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) announced in this November 4, 2022 news item on ScienceDaily comes from the University of Tokyo,

Plant-derived materials such as cellulose often exhibit thermally insulating properties. A new material made from nanoscale cellulose fibers shows the reverse, high thermal conductivity. This makes it useful in areas previously dominated by synthetic polymer materials. Materials based on cellulose have environmental benefits over polymers, so research on this could lead to greener technological applications where thermal conductivity is needed.

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Both cellulose nanofibers/nanofibres and cellulose nanofibrils are abbreviated to CNFs. This seems a bit confusing so I went looking for an explanation and found this September 22, 2020 posting (scroll down about 35% of the way) by professor Hatsuo Ishida, Department of Macromolecular Science and Engineering at Case Western Reserve University,

Both fiber and fibril indicate long thread-like materials and their meanings are essentially the same. However, the word,”fibril,” emphasizes a thin fiber. Therefore, the use of the word, “nano fibril,” is rather redundant. The word,”fibril” is often used for distinguishing high temperature water vapor treated cellulose fibers that are spread into very thin fibers from the whiskers prepared by the acid treatment of cellulosic materials. The word,” microfibril” is more often used than “nano fibril.” Some also use the word,”cellulose nanocrystal.” Cellulose whiskers are single crystals of materials and a typical length is less than a micrometer (one of the longest cellulose whiskers can be prepared from a sea creature called tunicate), whereas the cellulose nano fibril has much longer length. This material is much easier to scale up whereas cellulose whiskers are not as easily scale up as the nano fibrils. The word fiber has no implication and it is simply a thread like object. Thus, even if the diameter is more than hundred micrometers, as long as the length is much longer (high aspect ratio), you may call it a fiber, whereas such a thick fiber is seldom called a fibril.

Thank you professor Ishida!

A November 4, 2022 University of Tokyo press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, explains the interest in nanocellulose and its thermal properties,

Cellulose is a key structural component of plant cell walls and is the reason why trees can grow to such heights. But the secret of its material strength actually lies in its overlapping nanoscopic fibers. In recent years, many commercial products have used cellulose nanofiber (CNF) materials because their strength and durability make them a good replacement for polymer-based materials such as plastics that can be detrimental to the environment. But now and for the first time, a research team led by Professor Junichiro Shiomi from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Engineering has investigated previously unknown thermal properties of CNF, and their findings show these materials could be even more useful still.

“If you see plant-derived materials such as cellulose or woody biomass used in applications, it’s typically mechanical or thermally insulating properties that are being employed,” said Shiomi. “When we explored the thermal properties of a yarn made from CNF, however, we found that they show a different kind of thermal behavior, thermal conduction, and it’s very significant, around 100 times higher than that of typical woody biomass or cellulose paper.”

The reason yarn made from CNF can conduct heat so well is due to the way it’s made. Cellulose fibers in nature are very disorganized, but a process called the flow-focusing method combines cellulose fibers, orientating them in the same way, to create CNF. It’s this tightly bound and aligned bundle of rod-shaped fibers that allows heat to transfer along the bundle, whereas in a more chaotic structure it would dissipate heat more readily.

“Our main challenge was how to measure the thermal conductivity of such small physical samples and with great accuracy,” said Shiomi. “For this, we turned to a technique called T-type thermal conductivity measurement. It allowed us to measure the thermal conductivity of the rod-shaped CNF yarn samples which are only micrometers (a micrometer equaling one-thousandth of a millimeter) in diameter. But the next step for us is to perform accurate thermal tests on two-dimensional textilelike samples.”

Shiomi and his team hope that their investigation and future explorations into the use of CNF as a thermally conductive material could give engineers an alternative to some environmentally damaging polymers. In applications where heat transfer is important, such as certain electronic or computational components, it could greatly reduce the consequences of discarded electronic equipment, or e-waste, thanks to the biodegradable nature of CNF and other plant-based materials.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Enhanced High Thermal Conductivity Cellulose Filaments via Hydrodynamic Focusing by Guantong Wang, Masaki Kudo, Kazuho Daicho, Sivasankaran Harish, Bin Xu, Cheng Shao, Yaerim Lee, Yuxuan Liao, Naoto Matsushima, Takashi Kodama, Fredrik Lundell, L. Daniel Söderberg, Tsuguyuki Saito, and Junichiro Shiomi. Nano Lett. 2022, 22, 21, 8406–8412 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.2c02057 Publication Date:October 25, 2022 Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society

This paper is open access.

Cellulose nanofibers as an alternative material for petroleum-based plastics?

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According to an October 25, 2022 news item on phys.org, scientists at Osaka University (Japan) may have found a new material to replace petroleum-based plastic materials,

Single-use plastics have saved many lives by improving sanitation in health care. However, the sheer quantity of plastic waste—which can take from tens to hundreds of years to decompose—is a global pollution scourge. But now, in a study recently published in ACS Nano, researchers from The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (SANKEN) at Osaka University and collaborating partners have developed exceptionally versatile hydrogels and moldings that might replace conventional plastics.

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An October 27, 2022 Osaka University press release (also on EurekAlert but published October 21, 2022), which originated the news item, tells the story behind the research,

The global scale of plastic waste urgently requires solutions and is being addressed from diverse perspectives. For example, in August 2022, National Geographic published a feature on recycling and repurposing plastic waste. Nevertheless, “the only long-term solution is to develop inexpensive, high-performance, plastic-like alternatives that don’t persist in the environment,” says Takaaki Kasuga, lead and senior author. “This is an active area of research, but the proposed alternatives to date haven’t met society’s needs.”

While researching the global need for a plastic substitute, Kasuga and coworkers were inspired by cellulose nanofibers. For example, these ultrasmall fibers help plants maintain rigid yet lightweight structures. In fact, on a pound-for-pound basis, cellulose nanofibers help wood to be—by some metrics—stronger than steel. The ability to tailor the hierarchical nature of such nanofibers has made them an active area of research in synthetic tissue and other bioengineering contexts.

Various techniques are currently available for molding nanofibers into a controlled orientation; i.e., to exhibit anisotropy. However, a simple technique that enables one to mold cellulose nanofibers from the nano- to macroscopic scale, on multiple spatial axes, has long been unavailable. To meet this need, Kasuga and coworkers used electrophoretic deposition to fabricate anisotropic cellulose-nanofiber-based hydrogels and moldings.

There were several especially impressive outcomes of this study. One, cellulose nanofibers were oriented horizontally, randomly, and vertically by simply changing the applied voltage. Two, a multilayer hydrogel was easily prepared with alternating nanofiber orientations, in a manner that’s reminiscent of biological tissue. Three, “we easily prepared complex architectures, such as microneedles and mouthpiece molds,” says Kasuga. “The uniform nanofiber orientation helped suppress hydrogel cracking, and thus resulted in a smooth surface, upon drying.”

The technique used in this study is not limited to cellulose nanofibers. For example, the researchers also used sodium alginate and nanoclay. Thus, multicomponent materials that exhibit controlled nanoscale orientations are also straightforward to prepare. An immediate application of this study is straightforward manufacturing of complex, hierarchical hydrogels and moldings over a wide range of spatial scales. Such ecofriendly hydrogels and moldings will be useful in healthcare, biotech, and other applications—and thus will help alleviate the need for petroleum-based plastics.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

One-Pot Hierarchical Structuring of Nanocellulose by Electrophoretic Deposition by Takaaki Kasuga, Tsuguyuki Saito, Hirotaka Koga, and Masaya Nogi. ACS Nano 2022, XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.2c06392 Publication Date: October 21, 2022 © 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society

This paper appears to be open access.

Seaweed battery

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A supercapacitor is not a battery but it does have some similarities. (For the ‘seaweed curious’, there’s this somewhat related May 17, 2017 posting titled “Seaweed supercapacitors.” It doesn’t seem to be quite as popular as butterfly wings or a crustacean’s shell but seaweed does seem to have a following in the materials community. From an October 5, 2022 news item on Nanowerk,

Bristol-led team uses nanomaterials made from seaweed to create a strong battery separator, paving the way for greener and more efficient energy storage.

Sodium-metal batteries (SMBs) are one of the most promising high-energy and low-cost energy storage systems for the next-generation of large-scale applications. However, one of the major impediments to the development of SMBs is uncontrolled dendrite growth, which penetrate the battery’s separator and result in short-circuiting.

Building on previous work at the University of Bristol and in collaboration with Imperial College and University College London, the team has succeeded in making a separator from cellulose nanomaterials derived from brown seaweed.

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An October 5, 2022 University of Bristol press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, gives some technical details, Note: A link has been removed,

The research, published in Advanced Materials, describes how fibres containing these seaweed-derived nanomaterials not only stop crystals from the sodium electrodes penetrating the separator, they also improve the performance of the batteries.

“The aim of a separator is to separate the functioning parts of a battery (the plus and the minus ends) and allow free transport of the charge. We have shown that seaweed-based materials can make the separator very strong and prevent it being punctured by metal structures made from sodium. It also allows for greater storage capacity and efficiency, increasing the lifetime of the batteries – something which is key to powering devices such as mobile phones for much longer,” said Jing Wang, first author and PhD student in the Bristol Composites Institute (BCI).

Dr Amaka Onyianta, also from the BCI, who created the cellulose nanomaterials and co-authored the research, said: “I was delighted to see that these nanomaterials are able to strengthen the separator materials and enhance our capability to move towards sodium-based batteries. This means we wouldn’t have to rely on scarce materials such as lithium, which is often mined unethically and uses a great deal of natural resources, such as water, to extract it.”

“This work really demonstrates that greener forms of energy storage are possible, without being destructive to the environment in their production,” said Professor Steve Eichhorn who led the research at the Bristol Composites Institute.

The next challenge is to upscale production of these materials and to supplant current lithium-based technology.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Stable Sodium Metal Batteries in Carbonate Electrolytes Achieved by Bifunctional, Sustainable Separators with Tailored Alignment by Jing Wang, Zhen Xu, Qicheng Zhang, Xin Song, Xuekun Lu, Zhenyu Zhang, Amaka J. Onyianta, Mengnan Wang, Maria-Magdalena Titirici, Stephen J. Eichhorn. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202206367 First published online: 20 September 2022

This paper is open access.

Nano4EARTH workshop recordings available online

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Announced in October 2022, the US government’s Nano4EARTH is the Biden-Harris {President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris] Administration’s first national nanotechnology challenge. (You can find out more about the challenge in my November 28, 2022 posting.)

More recently, JD Supra’s February 22, 2023 news item notes Nano4EARTH’s kick-off workshop (Note: Links have been removed),

The kickoff workshop for Nano4EARTH was held January 24-25, 2023. Nano4EARTH will leverage recent investments in understanding and controlling matter at the nanoscale to develop technologies, industries, and training opportunities that address climate change. On January 26, 2023, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) issued a press release summarizing the workshop. According to OSTP, more than 400 people across sectors, with diverse expertise and perspectives, participated in the workshop. OSTP states that discussions focused on identifying nanotechnologies that will have an impact on climate change in four years or less, in addition to sharing resources to address barriers to entrepreneurship and technology adoption. Workshop participants identified goals and metrics to maintain momentum throughout the challenge. New connections and networks spanning federal agencies, non-federal organizations, and industry were created and several examples of collaborations and events centered on nanotechnology and climate change developed organically between participants.

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A January 26, 2023 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) press release, which originated the news item on JD Supra, described some common workshop themes,

  • Battery technology has seen increased adoption in personal vehicles and long-term energy storage solutions, but further advances in Li-ion, as well as new chemistries and architectures, show tremendous and broad potential. It is critical that research directions are well matched with particular use cases.
  • Catalysts leveraging new understandings of nanoscale materials and phenomena could optimize many high-greenhouse gas emitting industrial processes, minimize the need for rare-earth metals, and serve as a precursor for alternative energy sources such as green hydrogen and electrofuels. 
  • Coatings and other material innovations are likely to increase the overall efficiency of nearly any industrial process and lead to more resilient structures and devices, especially in changing and harsh environments. Examples include reflective coatings, corrosion protection, heat management in computing, lubricants and other additives, and membranes for separations. Drop-in solutions would have a more near-term impact.
  • Capture of greenhouse gasses through advanced materials and sorbents (e.g., metal organic frameworks) and nature mimicking processes (e.g., artificial photosynthesis), especially deployed at the point of production, could be impactful but deploying at scale has significant challenges. In the near term, renewable energy production and efficient transmission is worthy of increased attention.

In the months to come, the NNCO will convene a series of roundtable discussions that focus on some of the highest potential nanotechnologies identified at the kick-off workshop. Subject matter experts and federal partners will be asked to match nanotechnology opportunities to urgent climate change needs, with strong consideration of the broader societal needs and impacts. Feedback from the kick-off workshop will also inform additional activities and events to facilitate conversations and collaborations across this growing community.

The US National Nanotechnology Initiative-hosted Nano4EARTH Kick-off Workshop page features the meeting agenda where there are links to video recordings of each session.

BSB Nanotechnology, silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SiO2), and Dow

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Silicon dioxide (a form of silicon) is more commonly known as silica. There are problems with our use of *silica and so it was interesting to see this announcement (from a September 21, 2022 Dow news release on csiwire.com),

MIDLAND, Mich., September 21, 2022 /CSRwire/ – Dow (NYSE: Dow) announced a new engagement with BSB Nanotechnology Joint Stock Company, the world’s first producer of premium rice husk-based specialty silica. Rice husk, a renewable resource produced as a waste product of rice milling, is used for a plethora of diverse applications in the personal care market. This engagement helps accelerate Dow’s commitment towards a bio-based offering. The newly added ingredient – sold under the Dow trademark EcoSmooth™ Rice Husk Cosmetic Powder – delivers optical benefits and a unique sensorial experience for consumers in skin care, hair care and color cosmetic applications.

“Dow’s partnership with BSB Nanotechnology shines a light on how we continue to deliver on our commitment to transition towards a circular and low-carbon personal care offering while fostering valuable relationships with industry trailblazers,” said Isabel Almiro do Vale, global marketing and strategy director for Dow Personal Care. “This partnership is another significant milestone allowing Dow to expand its portfolio of products that enable eco-conscious claims, prioritizing solutions that deliver high-quality, benefits backed by science.”

The product of choice for the eco-conscious consumer, the EcoSmooth™ Rice Husk Cosmetic Powder is the exclusive ingredient to make its debut between the two parties. Compiled from non-GMO natural sources, this silica powder is upcycled from rice husk, a by-product from agriculture. It delivers a smooth feel combined with optical benefits like blurring imperfections and mattifying skin.

“This agreement signifies not only the first step towards a collaboration between Dow and BSB in the personal care sector but has also opened new pathways to other business sectors within Dow where BSB’s bio-based rice husk silica can offer sustainability and multifunctionality,” said Hung Nguyen, CEO of BSB. “BSB will continue to create more innovative and green solutions for the world and offer these additives through global partners like Dow.”

About Dow Personal Care Solutions

Dow Personal Care offers unique, innovative ingredients that empower customers around the world to create products with exceptional performance and exciting benefits that consumers can trust and believe in. Consumers that seek the confidence of a healthy appearance can see and feel the difference in our products through their lustrous hair or radiant and protected skin. We leverage our understanding of customer needs, deep market knowledge and technical expertise—combined with one of the broadest portfolios of technologies—to deliver personal care solutions with outstanding performance that are safe for people and the planet. We foster these innovations on global and local levels to meet the needs of diverse consumers through business centers, research and development (R&D), manufacturing plants and customer applications centers around the world. Please visit for more information.

About Dow

Dow (NYSE: DOW) combines global breadth; asset integration and scale; focused innovation and materials science expertise; leading business positions; and environmental, social and governance (ESG) leadership to achieve profitable growth and deliver a sustainable future. The Company’s ambition is to become the most innovative, customer centric, inclusive and sustainable materials science company in the world. Dow’s portfolio of plastics, industrial intermediates, coatings and silicones businesses delivers a broad range of differentiated, science-based products and solutions for its customers in high-growth market segments, such as packaging, infrastructure, mobility and consumer applications. Dow operates 104 manufacturing sites in 31 countries and employs approximately 35,700 people. Dow delivered sales of approximately $55 billion in 2021. References to Dow or the Company mean Dow Inc. and its subsidiaries. For more information, please visit www.dow.com or follow @DowNewsroom on Twitter.

About BSB Nanotechnology

BSB Nanotechnology Joint Stock Company, an established multi-faceted business, forayed into the rice world through the formulation of rice-based milk, a widely popular beverage in Vietnam. Strategically located in the Mekong Delta, the rice basket of Vietnam, BSB Nanotech taps into the country’s position as the 5th largest rice producer to access the main ingredient to its healthy beverage product. While feeding this nutritious gift of nature to the people of Vietnam, BSB Nanotech was presented with large amounts of rice husk, a waste product of rice milling. Building upon the business principle of reducing waste by reuse, BSB Nanotech has embarked on a journey to discover and create the value that rice husk could offer through its range of premium rice husk silica under the brand Biosilico. For more information, visit www.biosilico.vn .

I’m quite taken with BSB Nanotechnology’s Biosilico About page,

THE JOURNEY FROM ASH TO CASH

BSB Nanotechnology Joint Stock Company, an established multi-faceted business, forayed into the rice world through the formulation of rice-based milk, a widely popular beverage in Vietnam. Strategically located in the Mekong Delta, the rice basket of Vietnam, BSB Nanotech taps into the country’s  position as the 5th largest rice producer to access the main ingredient to its healthy beverage product. While feeding this nutritious gift of nature to the people of Vietnam, BSB Nanotech was presented with large amounts of rice husk, a waste product of rice milling. Building upon the business principle of reducing waste by reuse, BSB Nanotech has embarked on a journey to discover the value that rice husk could offer.

In the attempt to derive by-products from rice husk, BSB Nanotech learns that the most significant value held within rice husk ash is the high content of naturally present silica. Currently, sand and quartz are the only other naturally occurring silica sources. However, extracting silica from sand and quartz not only causes health hazards, but sand mining by itself presents a huge ecological and sociological problem. The utilization of rice husk ash to produce nanoporous silica is a positive step towards both a bio-based and circular economy, as ultrafine silica/nanosilica can be manufactured from this renewable resource and agricultural waste.

After 4 years of extensive research and development, a highly dedicated team of researchers of BSB Nanotech has successfully harnessed amorphous silica in its highest purity and quality from this waste material using a unique and patented technology. A new bio-based nanoporous silica under the BIOSILICO brand is now commercially available and can be customized to suit an array of applications.

OUR PROMISE TODAY FOR A BETTER TOMORROW

Today, BSB Nanotech is recognized as the world’s first producer of rice husk based nanoporous silica on a commercial scale. We are currently working with several global partners to expand the range of BIOSILICO’s applications from the Paints and Coatings to Rubber additives and Cosmetics industries.

To ensure that our products are delivered with its promised quality and committed schedule, BSB Nanotech undertook rigorous training and auditing to refine its operation, and production process and documentation to achieve the ISO [International Standards Organisation] QMS certification in 2020.

The company has embarked on a roadmap to become a global producer and developer of rice husk based nanoporous silica in both production volume and diverse applications.

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Maybe one of these days we’ll see BSB Nanotechnology at the annual Zero Waste Conference held here in Vancouver (Canada) during the autumn.

*See my July 10, 2014 posting scroll down [about 10%] to the University of California at Riverside news release for difficulties of working with silicon at the nanoscale, then scroll down about 40% to the discussion of Sand Wars, a documentary about how our appetite for silica (silicon dioxide) is depleting our beaches of sand.*

Stifle the noise with seaweed

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The claim that most spaces are now designed with sound-absorption in mind seems a little overblown to me but judge for yourself, from a July 14, 2022 news item on phys.org,

From airplanes to apartments, most spaces are now designed with sound-absorbing materials that help dampen the droning, echoing and murmuring sounds of everyday life. But most of the acoustic materials that can cancel out human voices, traffic and music are made from plastic foams that aren’t easily recycled or degraded. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have created a biodegradable seaweed-derived film that effectively absorbs sounds in this range.

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A July 14, 2022 American Chemical Society (ACS) news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, describes the work in more detail,

Controlling and optimizing the way sound moves throughout a room is key to creating functional spaces. Foam acoustic panels are a common solution, and they come in a variety of materials and thicknesses tailored to specific sound requirements. Most of these foams, however, are made from polyurethane and other polymers that are derived from crude oil or shale gas. To avoid petrochemicals, researchers have explored more renewably sourced and biodegradable sound-absorbing alternatives. But many current options are made from plant fibers that don’t effectively dampen noises in the most useful range of sound frequencies, or they are too thick or unwieldy to fabricate. So, Chindam Chandraprakash and colleagues wanted to develop a plant-derived, biodegradable material that would be simple to manufacture and that could absorb a range of sounds.

The team created thin films of agar, a jelly-like material that comes from seaweed, along with other plant-derived additives and varied both the thickness and porosity of the films. After running the materials through a battery of tests, the researchers measured how well the films dampened sound across a range of frequencies — from a bass hum to a shrill whine. To do this, the team created a sound tube in which a speaker is placed at one end, and the test film is fitted over the other end. Microphones in the middle of the tube measured the amount of sound emitted by the speaker and the amount of sound reflected off the film. These experiments showed that porous films made with the highest concentrations of agar had the greatest sound-absorbing qualities and performed similarly to traditional acoustic foams. The researchers plan to explore ways to modify the agar films to give them other desirable properties, such as flame resistance, and will explore other biologically derived film materials.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Agar-Based Composite Films as Effective Biodegradable Sound Absorbers by Surendra Kumar, Kousar Jahan, Abhishek Verma, Manan Agarwal, and C. Chandraprakash. ACS Sustainable Chem. Eng. 2022, 10, 26, 8242–8253 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.2c00168 Publication Date: June 23, 2022 Copyright © 2022 American Chemical Society

This paper is behind a paywall.

Can I have a beer with those carbon quantum dots?

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This research into using waste products from microbreweries comes from Québec, from a June 22, 2022 news item on ScienceDaily,

For a few years now, spent grain, the cereal residue from breweries, has been reused in animal feed. From now on, this material could also be used in nanotechnology! Professor Federico Rosei’s team at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has shown that microbrewery waste can be used as a carbon source to synthesize quantum dots. The work, done in collaboration with Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon of the École de technologie supérieure (ÉTS), was published in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal RSC Advances

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A June 22, 2022 Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, explains what quantum dots have to do with wastage from beer (Note: Links have been removed),

Often considered as “artificial atoms”, quantum dots are used in the transmission of light. With a range of interesting physicochemical properties, this type of nanotechnology has been successfully used as a sensor in biomedicine or as LEDs in next generation displays. But there is a drawback. Current quantum dots are produced with heavy and toxic metals like cadmium. Carbon is an interesting alternative, both for its biocompatibility and its accessibility.

An eco-responsible approach

The choice of brewery waste as a source material came from Daniele Benetti, a postdoctoral fellow at INRS, and Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, the master’s student at ÉTS who conducted the work. Basically, they wanted to carry out various experiments using accessible materials. This is how the scientists came to collaborate with the Brasseurs de Montréal to obtain their cereal residues.

“The use of spent grain highlights both an eco-responsible approach to waste management and an alternative raw material for the synthesis of carbon quantum dots, from a circular economy perspective,” says Professor Rosei.

The advantage of using brewery waste as a source of carbon quantum dots is that it is naturally enriched with nitrogen and phosphorus. This avoids the need for pure chemicals.

“This research was a lot of fun, lighting up what we can do with the beer by-products,” says Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon, Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Multifunctional Construction Materials at ÉTS. “Moreover, ÉTS is located on the site of the former Dow brewery, one of the main breweries in Quebec until the 1960s. So there is a historical and heritage link to this work.”

An accessible method

In addition to using biobased material, the research team wanted to show that it was possible to produce carbon quantum dots with common means. The scientists used a domestic microwave oven to carbonize the spent grain, resulting in a black powder. It was then mixed with distilled water and put back into the microwave oven. A passage in the centrifuge and advanced filtration allowed to obtain the quantum dots. Their finished product was able to detect and quantify heavy metals, as well as other contaminants that affect water quality, the environment and health. 

The next steps will be to characterize these carbon quantum dots from brewery waste, beyond proof of concept. The research team is convinced that this nanotechnology has the potential to become sophisticated detection sensors for various aqueous solutions, even in living cells.

About the study

The paper “Brewery spent grain derived carbon dots for metal sensing,” by Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, Daniele Benetti, Imane Haddadou, Michael Di Mare, Claudiane Ouellet-Plamondon, and Federico Rosei, was published on April 14, 2022, in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal RSC Advances. The study was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the Quebec Centre for Advanced Materials (QCAM) and the Canada Research Chairs.

About INRS
INRS is a university dedicated exclusively to graduate level research and training. Since its creation in 1969, INRS has played an active role in Québec’s economic, social, and cultural development and is ranked first for research intensity in Québec. INRS is made up of four interdisciplinary research and training centres in Québec City, Montréal, Laval, and Varennes, with expertise in strategic sectors: Eau Terre Environnement, Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications, Urbanisation Culture Société, and Armand-Frappier Santé Biotechnologie. The INRS community includes more than 1,500 students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty members, and staff.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Brewery spent grain derived carbon dots for metal sensing by Aurel Thibaut Nkeumaleu, Daniele Benetti, Imane Haddadou, Michael Di Mare, Claudiane M. Ouellet-Plamondon and Federico Rosei. RSC Adv., 2022,12, 11621-11627 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D2RA00048B First published: 14 Apr 2022

This paper is open access.

An apple a day could help you clean up nanoplastics?

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it’s really all about the pectin. From a June 27, 2022 Shinshu University (Japan) press release on EurekAlert (Note: A link has been removed),

Microplastics are known to collect in ecosystems and nanoplastics occur from the breaking down of microplastics. Nanoplastics are plastic particles of sizes less than 100nm and when they are in water, they are dispersed in a colloidal form. Nanoplastics might be more prevalent than microplastics, but it is hard to analyze and study in-depth due to their size. In zebrafish, however, nanoplastics have been found in various organs including the brain, which may be an indicator that it crosses the blood-brain barrier.

In towns and cities, 90% of microplastics are captured in the sewage treatment process. In the ocean, microplastics are also known to sink to the bottom by binding to biopolymers. Therefore, this research team at Shinshu University lead by Professor Hiroshi Moriwaki of the Department of Applied Biology, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology considered using pectin, a biopolymer to bind to nanoplastics with the help of Fe (III) or AI (III). They found that they were able to remove 95% of nanoplastics in the first 24 hours by using coagulating sedimentation with pectin and Fe(III) with filter paper.

The use of pectin was inspired by the abundance of apples in the prefecture of Nagano where Shinshu University is based. For more information, please read the paper, Interaction between nanoplastics and pectin, a water-soluble polysaccharide, in the presence of Fe(III) ion in the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Interaction between nanoplastics and pectin, a water-soluble polysaccharide, in the presence of Fe(III) ion by Hiroshi Moriwaki, Naoya Komori, Yoshitake Akiyama. Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering Volume 10, Issue 3, June 2022, 108054 Available online 9 June 2022, Version of Record 15 June 2022

This study is behind a paywall.