Department Process Engineering
Particle Laboratory
Nano-materials (including engineered nanoparticles (NP), as well as nano-structure materials) are increasingly used in many consumer products due to their ‘beneficial’ properties. However, while these materials are certainly beneficial regarding their respective application, they might not be as beneficial in the aquatic environment. The (unintended) release and the fate of these nano-materials in the aquatic environment are only poorly understood mainly due to the he lack of adequate analytical techniques to detect and characterize these materials in the environment. Our research, therefore, aims at combining well established standard characterization methods from colloidal sciences, with new methods from materials science and with own developments to detect, quantify and understand the effects of the ‘nano-materials’ in the aquatic environment.
Selected Projects
- Behavior of silver nanoparticles in a wastewater treatment plant - Opportunities and Risks of Nanomaterials, National Research Programme NRP 6
- Nanodefine (FP7) - Development of full automation of electron microscopy operation allowing rapid particle sizing and elemental identification
- Fundamental and Applied Studies of Nanoparticle Detection using LIBD / LIBS - Laser Induced Breakdown Detection / Spectroscopy (SNF)
Completed Projects
- Formation of Fe(III)-precipitates - Formation of Fe(III)-precipitates formed in aerated Fe(II) and As(III) containing water
- Particles (> 500 nm) in ice cores - Climatic indications of particles (>500nm) in Ice cores
- Laser Induced Breakdown Detection (LIBD) - Development of a Laser Induced Berakdown Detection (LIBD) system for fast on-line analysis of nanosized materials in the environment
- Engineered NP in the environment - Fate and behavior of engineered NP in the environment