Strange Solutions

New materials like nanoparticles open up exciting opportunities for manufacturing companies, from construction supplies to medical innovations. But they also raise environmental concerns when they could enter rivers, streams, or the Great Lakes after their initial purpose is completed.

Dr. John Lenhart and Dr. Harold Walker of Ohio State University’s Department of Civil, Environmental, & Geodetic Engineering, along with graduate student Xuan Li, recently completed a project examining the fate of silver nanoparticles, often used in commercial products because silver acts as an effective antimicrobial agent. When those particles enter natural waters, such as rivers or a Great Lake, the silver can either aggregate (or clump together) and settle into the sediment, where it would affect bottom-dwelling organisms; or it can stay suspended in the water column, where it would slowly dissolve and release toxic silver ions into the water.