NBIA Colloquium by Susan Stipp
NBIA Colloquium by Susan Stipp
Speaker: Susan Stipp (Nano-Science Center, University of Copenhagen)
Title: More oil, less CO2, cleaner water, how organisms make shells – the secrets of nature at the nanoscale
Abstract: Drinking water aquifers and oil reservoirs
are huge but the physical and chemical processes that determine if our
water is pure or if oil can be produced are controlled at the atomic
scale. Until recently, we had no way to “see” precisely what happens
so we had to make conceptual models based on data from macroscopic
experiments – and that required considerable guesswork. Scientists
relied on empirical constants because the theory for solid-fluid
interaction was not well enough defined and computational power for
huge systems was only a dream. Now, nanotechniques allow us to observe
the surface of natural materials and watch as they interact with the
fluids in contact: i.e., water, oil, gases, CO2, and computer speed has
increased allowing ab initio insight. From the new understanding we
gain, we can begin to solve some of society’s biggest challenges.
Currently, our NanoGeoScience team is examining natural systems, such
as: the submicrometer crystals of chalk to find out what makes them
able to resist the laws of thermodynamics; if it is possible to trap
toxic trace metals in green rust, a layered, iron mineral; how to see
fluid flow through the nanometer scale pores in soils and rocks; and
why the hydrophobicity of mineral surfaces change when the salinity of
the fluid changes. The processes that take place at the solid-fluid
interface are the same, whether it is the edges of growing bone, the
scale that forms at the bottom of your tea kettle, the rust that forms
on our bicycles, or the sugars that bacteria extrude to hold them fast
on surfaces. Nature’s secrets hold promise.