Sustainable Nano

What could be cooler than a technology that uses nanomaterials? How about one that combines two nanomaterials! Nanocomposites bring together two or more nanoscale materials to take advantage of their combined features to get what Dr. Klaus Müllen calls "the best out of two worlds." Dr. Müllen is an emeritus director at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, where his work ranges from the chemistry and physics of small molecules to nanocomposites and biosynthetic hybrids. In this interview he talks about how a fascination with color got him into chemistry, some of the many technological applications for nanocomposites, and some candid advice for young scientists.

(L-R) Stephanie Mitchell, Dr. Klaus Müllen, and Andrew Northwick after their interview

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Interviewee: Klaus Müllen

Interviewers: Stephanie Mitchell & Andrew Northwick

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Music: PC III and Dexter Britain

Dr. Mary Kirchhoff is Executive Vice President of Scientific Advancement at the American Chemical Society and Director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute. Her career has spanned a variety of experiences related to sustainability in chemistry, including working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's green chemistry program and co-editing a book on Greener Approaches to Undergraduate Chemistry Experiments. In this episode, Dr. Kirchhoff shares insights and examples on the importance of green chemistry with two graduate student interviewers from the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology.

Dr. Mary Kirchhoff, Executive Vice President of Scientific Advancement at ACS (left); green chemistry image by IO-images

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Interviewee: Mary Kirchhoff

Interviewers: Stephanie Mitchell & Peter Clement

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Editor: Alicia McGeachy

Music: PC III and Dexter Britain

Alvin Chang, Senior Graphics Reporter for Vox, wrote and illustrated an article last year called "The subtle ways colleges discriminate against poor students, explained with a cartoon." In this episode of the podcast, we share the audio of a webinar that Chang presented for the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology about his work. He tackles challenging issues of class, bias, and educational attainment using clear illustrations (verbal as well as visual) and simple analogies that are relevant far beyond the world of academic science.

Alvin Chang, Senior Graphics Reporter for Vox (left, courtesy of Alvin Chang) and one of his illustrations for "The subtle ways colleges discriminate against poor students, explained with a cartoon" (right, used with permission from Vox.com)

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Interviewee: Alvin Chang

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Audience Questions: Peter Clement, Nicholas Niemuth, Becky Rodriguez, & Rigoberto Hernandez

Editor: Alicia McGeachy

Music: PC III and Dexter Britain

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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Interviewee: Liz Laudadio

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Music: PC III and Dexter Britain

How are photons like toddlers? And what does that have to do with solar energy? Dr. Jillian Buriak has been researching nanomaterials and renewable energy for over a decade, including work to improve solar panel technology. In this first episode of the Sustainable Nano Podcast's third season, we interview Dr. Buriak, who is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alberta and Canada Research Chair of Nanomaterials for Energy, about her research, career path, and even some advice for junior scientists. 

Dr. Jillian Buriak (left) and the cover illustration of single-crystal nickel−iron oxide nanoparticles of different shapes, based on an article from her lab (right, from Bao et al. 2014. (used with permission from the American Chemical Society)

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Interviewee: Dr. Jillian Buriak

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Editor: Alicia McGeachy

Music: PC III

It's Season 3 of the Sustainable Nano Podcast! Here's a quick preview of a few of our upcoming episodes, including interviews with Dr. Mary Kirchhoff, Alvin Chang, & Dr. Jillian Buriak.

Sustainable Nano Season 3 is on the way!

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Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Music: PC III

In the second interview from our visit to the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, graduate students Natalie Hudson-Smith and Jaya Borgatta interview Dr. Wade Elmer, Chief Scientist for the Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology. They discuss everything from everyday garden fertilizers to cutting-edge nanoparticle experiments on watermelon.

Dr. Wade Elmer with eggplant seedlings at the Connecticut Agricultural Research Station. (image by Jan Ellen Spiegel, used with permission from Undark Magazine)

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Interviewee: Dr. Wade Elmer

Interviewers: Natalie Hudson-Smith and Jaya Borgatta

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Music: Ketsa

How do we "see" nanoparticles when they're too small to view with a normal microscope? In this episode we interview Kelly Zhang, a graduate student in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology who recently published a paper about a new way to use NMR technology (like MRI for chemistry) to study the behavior of molecules that form a shell on diamond nanoparticles. We also talk about how watching anime as a kid inspired Kelly to become a chemist.

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Interviewee: Kelly Zhang

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Music: Ketsa and Dexter Britain

What does food blogging have to do with genetics research? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Ahna Skop, an associate professor of Genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, about how art, science, and cooking intersect, as well as some of the benefits and challenges she has experienced being dyslexic.

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C. Elegans artwork in the style of Miro (image courtesy of Ahna Skop)

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Interviewee: Dr. Ahna Skop

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Music: Ketsa

At last summer's American Chemical Society national meeting, Dr. Margaret Schott of Northwestern University took the unusual step of giving her history division presentation as her subject, Dr. Katharine Burr Blodgett. In this episode we interview Dr. Schott about her own path in life and chemistry, as well as that of Dr. Blodgett, including the debate about whether this pioneer of thin film technology was overlooked for a Nobel Prize.

(Katharine Burr Blodgett (left, image from the Smithsonian) and Margaret Schott (right, image from Northwestern University))

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Interviewee: Dr. Margaret Schott

Interviewer: Liz Laudadio

Producer/Host: Miriam Krause

Music: Ketsa