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February 24, 2021
from the American Society of Agronomy
Carbon nanotubes are tiny. They can be a hundred thousand times smaller than the width of a human hair. But they have huge potential.
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Products made using carbon nanotubes include rebars for concrete, sporting goods, wind turbines, and lithium batteries.
The potential uses of carbon nanotubes could extend to areas such as agriculture, biomedicine, and space exploration.
However, as we use more carbon nanotubes to make things, we also increase the likelihood that these nanotubes will end up in different environments and ecosystems.
« So it’s important to understand how carbon nanotubes behave in those environments, » says Yu Yang, member of the Soil Science Society of America.
In a new study, Yang and colleagues describe a way to measure the content of a certain type of carbon nanotube in plant tissues. Her research was recently published in the Journal of Environmental Quality.
Carbon nanotubes can find their way into agricultural fields and food products. There they can endanger human health and the environment.
« It is crucial to know how carbon nanotubes are measured in the environment in order to understand their fate and their effects on the environment, » says Yang.
To mimic the nanotubes in the environment, Yang and colleagues grew hydroponic lettuce in the presence of carbon nanotubes. Then they analyzed the lettuce leaves for traces of carbon nanotubes.
Yang found that this method could detect small amounts of carbon nanotubes in the leaves, stems and roots of the lettuce plants.
« We developed a method to do this address the challenging problem of quantifying carbon nanomaterials in the environment, « says Yang. « These findings can help control the sustainable use of carbon nanotubes in natural environments. »
The challenge in measuring carbon nanotubes in the environment is that they are made of carbon. All living things on earth – including humans and plants – have carbon as a key building block.
The task of Yang and colleagues was to distinguish between carbon in living material and carbon in carbon nanotubes.
A single layer of carbon atoms that are arranged in a honeycomb pattern is called graph. A carbon nanotube is a sheet of graphene rolled into a tiny cylinder.
Carbon nanotubes made from a single sheet of graphene are known as single-walled nanotubes. Layering multiple tubes in others results in multi-walled carbon nanotubes.
Scientists can add different molecules to carbon nanotubes. Adding these molecules can change their properties. For example, they can dissolve more easily in solvents.
« Carbon nanotubes with additional molecules could be used to make nanocomposites, biomedicine, and chemical or biological probes, » says Yang.
In previous studies, Yang’s group had multi-walled carbon nanotubes in Plants quantified. But no one had measured whether this type of carbon nanotube containing a specific molecule got into plants.
The researchers used a technique called programmed thermal analysis. In this approach, materials are heated in a controlled manner in different environments – for example with plus or minus oxygen.
How different materials react to heating in different environments can provide great clues about these materials.
Yang and colleagues found that that they can use a programmed thermal analysis to detect the carbon in the nanotubes. With this data, they were also able to differentiate the carbon in carbon nanotubes from the carbon in plants.
This is the first study that uses this thermal analysis to measure the levels of this type of carbon nanotube in plants. « This is crucial in order to understand the fate of carbon nanotubes in the environment and to assess the potential human exposure, » says Yang.
« We also want to try to measure carbon nanotubes with different molecules, » says Yang. He also plans to expand test materials beyond lettuce plants. « We want to test this approach in different environments. »
Ultimately, the goal is to advance the use of carbon nanotubes. « Accurately measuring carbon nanotubes in the environment can promote their sustainable use, » says Yang.
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Ref: https://phys.org
