Credit: Jackie Limbaugh
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Rice-led NEWT Center develops energy-saving tech to remove contaminants from wastewater, drinking water
A polymer mat developed at Rice University has the ability to fish biologically harmful contaminants from water through a strategy known as “bait, hook and destroy.”
Tests with wastewater showed the mat can efficiently remove targeted pollutants, in this case a pair of biologically harmful endocrine disruptors, using a fraction of the energy required by other technology. The technique can also be used to treat drinking water.
Image: The Rice University-led NEWT Center created a nanoparticle-infused polymer mat that both attracts and destroys pollutants in wastewater or drinking water. A mat, top left, is immersed in water with methylene blue as a contaminant. The contaminant is then absorbed at top right by the mat and, in the bottom images, destroyed by exposure to light. The mat is then ready for reuse. (Credit: Rice University/NEWT)
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Rice University scientists simplify process to make polymers with light-triggered nanoparticles
Rice University scientists plan to employ the power of the sun to build functional synthetic polymers using photosensitive quantum dots — microscopic semiconducting particles — as a catalyst. The luminescent dots are only a few nanometers wide, but are highly tunable for their unique optical and electronic properties. They are beginning to show up in modern displays, but lend themselves to industrial chemistry as well. The Rice lab of materials scientist Eilaf Egap focused on the latter with its demonstration of a stable and economical method to make polymers through photo-controlled atom-transfer radical polymerization. The method could replace molecular catalysts or expensive transition metals currently used to make things like methacrylates (common in plastics), styrene and block copolymers.
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Rice University students (from left) Mathieu Simeral, Pelham Keahey (Applied Physics) and Kristofer Schroder helped complete the first clinical study of BiliSpec, a low-cost, battery-powered reader designed to diagnose jaundice by immediately quantifying serum bilirubin levels from a small drop of whole blood. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) |
Clinical study validates effectiveness of device invented by Rice U. students
The first clinical study of a low-cost, hand-held jaundice detector invented by Rice University students couldn’t have come at a better time for NEST360°, an international team of scientists, doctors and global health experts preparing for a Dec. 11 competition for $100 million from the MacArthur Foundation. The money would allow the team to carry out its visionary plan to halve the number of newborn deaths in African hospitals within 10 years.
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Rice postdoctoral research fellow Alessandro Alabastri, alumnus Andrew Treleaven ’13 and graduate student Pratiksha Dongare attended the inaugural University Innovation and Entrepreneurship Showcase in Washington, D.C., to demonstrate SNOWater, a solar water desalination project they pioneered at Rice’s Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment Research Center. SNOWater converts high-salinity and polluted water to freshwater and allows the use of solar energy for off-the-grid water purification. The Nov. 14 showcase highlighted the role of federally funded university research in fueling entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness across the country. The Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and the Association of American Universities in partnership with the National Academy of Inventors and VentureWell hosted the event. |
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Rice University nanoscientist honored for pioneering research in plasmonics
The American Physical Society (APS) has awarded Rice University nanoscientist Naomi Halas the prestigious 2018 Julius Edgar Lilienfeld Prize.
The prize, which includes a $10,000 award, is given annually to recognize an outstanding contribution to physics. Halas is being honored for her “pioneering research at the intersection of optics and nanoscience, and groundbreaking applications of those findings in the field of plasmonics, and for her exceptional impact communicating the excitement of scientific discoveries and their vital role in improving people’s lives.”
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Rice Assistant Professor Eilaf Egap holds a vial of quantum dots her lab is using to catalyze the creation of functional polymers. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)