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February 23, 2011Last week the US Environmental Protection Agency announced that they are awarding $5.5 million to research possible health risks in nanotechnology. The information developed can guide the EPA and other agencies in policy decisions regarding the safety of materials and products made using nanotechnology. The United Kingdom’s Natural Environment Research Council ($6,000,000) and the Consumer Product Safety Commission ($500,000) are also contributing to this research project. The grants will be divided between three different of researchers in the US and three in the UK. In related news, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recently closed public comment on their draft document concerning possible health effects of exposure carbon nanotubes and nanofibers. The NIOSH document recommends:Employers minimize work-related exposures until scientific studies can fully clarify the physical and chemical properties of carbon nanotubes and carbon nanofibers that define their
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February 17, 2011Scientists at Northern Illinois University recently published a new approach for fabricating hydrogen gas sensors by depositing palladium onto commercially available filtration membranes. This creates networks of ultrasmall palladium nanowires without the traditional obstacles of nanofabrication (tedious production, potential contamination). Palladium, besides poisoning Iron Man, is highly selective to Hydrogen gas and therefore commonly used in room-temperature solid-state Hydrogen sensors.
The new method involves a network of ultrasmall palladium nanowires (<10nm) being placed on 60 micron thick membranes with a nominal filtration pore diameter of 20nm. The end result is that this new type of fabrication method outperformed traditional hydrogen sensors, such as continuous reference film, by providing higher sensitivity and shorter response times. Better hydrogen sensing can lead to greater efficiency in areas such as steel manufacturing and clean energy research. -
February 16, 2011The Department of Energy and Savannah River National Laboratory recently published a study regarding their efforts to improve performance on cross-flow filtration for high level waste treatment. Even though the waste being treated in this case is actually radioactive material from nuclear power plants, the process they describe, along with the issues they raise and recommendations for improvement, can be applied to the more common uses for cross-flow filtration.
The stated goal of this DOE research was to improve filter fluxes in their existing cross-flow equipment, a common request of many customers. The study examines the problem of increasing cross-flow filtration efficiency from a number of different approaches: Backpulsing, cake development, scouring, and cleaning were all taken into consideration.
At the end of the study SRNL was able to draw some conclusions to take into consideration when evaluating your own setup.- Higher solids concentration presents a greater challenge to filtration.
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January 10, 2011This week the New York Times gave a very nice shout out to one of our customers, Ion Torrent, and their CEO, Dr. Jonathan Rothberg. Ion Torrent is increasing the prevalence of genetic sequencing by developing smaller and more affordable machines. The article compares what they are doing with genetic equipment to what Steve Jobs did with the personal computer – so clearly Ion Torrent has some big, ambitious plans. They’ve been using our bench scale products for a little while now, and it’s nice to know they are going to good use. My favorite part, “If somebody is to get the Nobel Prize for next-generation sequencing, it should be Jonathan.” Just make sure to wave to us from Stockholm! Read the complete article here. They’ve been using our bench scale products for a little while now, and it’s nice to know they are going to good use. My favorite part, “If somebody is to get the Nobel Prize for next-generation sequencing, it should be Jonathan.” Just make sure to wave to us from Stockholm!
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January 06, 2011
Have you ever wondered where you would be without Thomas Graham? If you are a chemist or membrane scientist, you probably should. Scientists of many disciplines are indebted to Thomas Graham for his groundbreaking studies on gas flow through microporous membranes. His work, which included creating Graham’s Laws of Diffusion to describe the relative permeation rate of two gases, was instrumental in the creation of colloidal chemistry and the advancement of membrane science. In terms of real world applications, Graham’s efforts are a precursor to inventions ranging from the artificial kidney to the atomic bomb. His feats are even more impressive when you consider that in order to perform his experiments he had to first generate the necessary gases himself, and also that his selection of membrane materials was limited to whatever objects he could find, such as rubber balloons, animal bladders, and thin metal sheets. Thomas Graham was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1805 and enrolled in the
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December 29, 2010This is another short week for Sterlitech as we get ready to celebrate the New Year. We will be closed Thursday and Friday, and we look forward to working with you all again in 2011!
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December 22, 2010We've previously discussed how the combination of silver and carbon nanotubes can be used to create more efficient water purification filters, now you can see a little bit about how this filter is made thanks to Technology Review and Stanford University. You can read more about the process here.
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December 22, 2010
Just a reminder, but the Sterlitech office will be closed for the holiday tomorrow and Friday and we will reopen on Monday, December 27th. Have a happy and safe holiday weekend!
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December 21, 2010
When counting bacteria as part of epifluorescent microscopy we generally recommend using the black polycarbonate membranes instead of cellulose membranes. This is because the black polycarbonate materials have a uniform pore size and flat surface that will retain all of the bacteria without trapping any inside of the filter. Though cellulose membranes will retain bacteria, it often will become trapped inside of the filter, where it cannot be counted.
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December 17, 2010
Is nothing sacred? In the news today came word that the period table is changing the atomic weights of 10 elements. Instead of being listed as one static value, the atomic weight for these elements will now be displayed as a a range that will more accurately reflect how the elements actually appear in nature. The change is being made after decades of study and this is the first time in the history of the periodic table that any atomic weights will be altered. Measuring the variance of atomic weights is being used in real world applications for everything from analyzing food purity, to determining which athletes are using performance enhancing drugs! The elements being changed are: Boron, carbon, chlorine, hydrogen, lithium, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, sulfur, and thallium.
