Performing Department
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Non Technical Summary
Nanoparticles (<100 nm) are finding increasing use in consumer products, electronics, structural materials, pollution control, and medicine. There has been a huge effort to understand the benefits and adverse effects of nanotechnology on the agriculture and food sectors. There are more than 150 nanotechnology-based food products in the market already and a number of nanotechnology-based products for agricultural application (including fertilizers) are expected. The nanoparticles that find their way to agriculture are typically dispersed in aqueous media (irrigated water or pore water). The science involved in dispersion will be better understood with additional information on zeta potential of the nanoparticles. The zeta potential is known to be pH dependent and it is known that pH changes in the rhizosphere (plant root zone) in a dynamic way depending on what is introduced to that zone, and the resulting changes in zeta potential are expected to influence the stability and reactivity of the particles. Further, nanoparticles are functionalized to perform specific tasks and functionalization changes their properties. The measurement of zeta potential of the nanomaterials becomes even more important at this stage as the zeta potential will also determine how they behave with food, associated microorganisms, and molecular level materials. The zeta potential of particles may also change in the presence of natural organic matters (NOM) and clays and that will be important to understand to elucidate plant/food-nanoparticle interactions. The interactions of nanoparticles also depend on the particle size, and the particle size changes depending where the particles are present (for example, under dry or wet conditions). The goal the present project is to procure a Zetasizer (equipment) that can measure zeta potential and diameter of nanoparticles. It can also measure the flow behavior of some nanomaterials. With the Zetasizer on campus, the Project Director and other researchers will be able get much faster and accurate measurements of the nanoparticle properties and conduct studies involving the nanomaterials and fresh crop at macro and molecular levels. The procurement of a Zetasizer will impact food safety research presently conducted by the PD and his collaborators. The PDs will be also able explore new areas of research once equipped with the Zetasizer. The equipment will help in analytical capacity building as a number of post-graduate, graduate and undergraduate students will be trained to use it and they will be able to use it for their research. The equipment will also be used by other researchers at North Dakota State University and outside and they will be benefitted from the state-of-the-art equipment.
Animal Health Component
0%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
100%
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
Project Goals: Immediate goal of this project is to procure a Zetasizer for the measurement of (1) particle size with specific interest on nanoparticles, (2) zeta potential, and (3) molecular weight of biological particles and use these measurements in research pertaining to nanoparticle and food crop interactions. Long-term Goals: The long-term and overarching goal of this project is to enhance the research capability of the Project Director (PD) and the faculty involved in area of food safety. The PD and faculty involved in this proposal are working on areas related food safety and agriculture. The PD and other faculty members will be using this equipment to characterize nano- and microparticles (including bacteria and fungi) in aqueous media and interpret and use the results to improve agriculture practices in the United States with specific emphasis of agricultural food. The team put together by the PD are multi-disciplinary in nature and will be a perfect group to work on complex problems related to immerging technologies (e.g., nanotechnology). Establishing long-term collaborations will help the PD to achieve the overarching goal in this project. The PD and other participating faculty plan to continue their collaborations so that they can contribute to the body of knowledge in nanotechnology through life-cycle studies, and help in developing models for sustainable nanotechnology products for food and agricultural applications. Specific Objectives: The specific objective of this research is to procure the equipment and set it up for immediate use by the PD and other major users' research groups
Project Methods
Efforts: The Zetasizer will be procured as soon possible. The manufacturer/supplier will install the instrument and arrage for a training program.Evaluation: The PD will keep track of instrument hours used by researchers and collect information whether the results will be published in the near future. The PD will also monitor the number of peer reviewed papers published with data generated by this new instrument.