Team: Joshua Prince (PhD CEE), Darryl Taylor (PhD CEE), Daniel Tento (BS ChE)
Problem
Nanoparticles are used in medical devices, therapeutics, paint, sunscreen, coatings, etc. Nanoparticles accumulate in biofilms in estuary environments and this may be the entry to bioaccumulate through the food chain. While it is known how charge influences nanoparticle accumulation once they are inside the biofilm, it is unknown why they are attracted there originally.
Hypothesis & Methods
Analytical modeling of fate and transport of nanoparticle from the bulk to the biofilm interior porosity
Experimental verification of these models will be conducted using hydrogels as a steady-state approximation
Potential Outcomes & Impact
Biofilm structures could remove nanoparticles from manufacturing waste streams and better environmental fate models
Publications, Presentations, Patents
Joshua Prince and A-Andrew Jones "Mass-Transfer Relations for Nanoparticle Transport across Human-Biofilm Interface” 2020 AIChE Annual Meeting Virtual, 11/2020. (2nd Place Graduate Presentation Competition)
Funding
Funded by a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health