a blog by the NSF Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology
The dwindling supply of non-renewable energy sources (I’m looking at you, fossil fuels!) and their impact on the environment have driven the pursuit for more sustainable energy sources. 1 According to the International Energy Agency, global energy demands decreased by 1% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but this statistic is quickly turning around, …
Continue reading "Electrifying the night: supporting solar energy conversion in the dark"
Most of us are familiar with the concept of “side effects.” This is when something that is designed to be helpful ends up having some harm that goes along with it. For patients with cancer, anti-cancer drugs can be life-savers – literally. The benefits of using these drugs are apparent to anyone whose cancer has …
Continue reading "Can We Make Nanoparticles More Sustainable?"
LEGO blocks may be one of the simplest but most genius toys ever created, as evidenced by their popularity. Taking such simple building blocks that are modular and being able to create nearly endless different combinations of structures is liberating. On the other hand, it’s also great that LEGO can create a set of instructions …
Continue reading "How Click Chemistry is Like Playing with LEGOs"
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 …
Continue reading "Ep 29. Green is the Color of Chemistry"
It's National Nanotechnology Day, and Season 3 of the Sustainable Nano Podcast is coming soon! Here's a quick preview of a few of our upcoming episodes, including interviews with Dr. Mary Kirchhoff, Alvin Chang, & Dr. Jillian Buriak. To listen to this preview episode, click here. Want more podcast episodes? You can find them all on our podcast page, …
Continue reading "Podcast Preview: Season 3"
What does "sustainability" mean? Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland is famous for serving three terms as the Prime Minister of Norway and chairing the World Commission on Environment and Development -- the Brundtland Commission -- which defined sustainable development as "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to …
Continue reading "Podcast Ep. 20 Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland and the Definition of Sustainability"
These days we are all familiar with the concept of recycling, which for most of us involves the weekly ritual of placing waste materials such as bottles, cans, and cardboard into oversized, colored recycling bins and placing them outside the house. After pick up, these recyclables are transported to collection centers where they are sorted, …
Continue reading "Recycling: A Strategy for Sustainable Nanotechnology?"
Chemistry at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station ranges from testing how nanoparticles help plants grow to determining what kind of poison was placed in someone's coffee. In this episode, we interview Dr. Jason White, Vice Director of Analytical Chemistry at the CAES and our newest collaborator in the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology. To listen to …
What exactly is "sustainable nanotechnology?" Even after over 200 Sustainable Nano blog posts, the answer to that question might not seem obvious! Fortunately, we have two new videos to share that do a great job explaining the mission of the Center for Sustainable Nanotechnology (CSN). First, here's a brand new 3-minute video introducing our Center: The other video …
Continue reading "New Sustainable Nanotechnology Videos!"
What if car tires could be made from renewable resources instead of petroleum? In this episode of the podcast, we interview Dr. Paul Dauenhauer, part of a research team from the Center for Sustainable Polymers who have developed a new chemical process to make isoprene (one of the key ingredients in car tires) from biomass such as grass or corn.
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