Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is a widely used polymer in consumer goods like plastic bottles and is highly accepted for recycling due to its lightweight, durability,...
Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) is a widely used polymer in consumer goods like plastic bottles and is highly accepted for recycling due to its lightweight, durability, and low oxygen permeability, which helps keep foods fresh. PET can be recycled mechanically or depolymerized into its chemical components, but only 9% of the 35.7 million tons of plastic waste generated in 2018 was recycled. Recycled plastics often suffer from lower quality due to contamination and physical damage, and they can be more expensive than virgin plastics, as seen with Coca-Cola's reduction in recycled plastic usage. Upcycling plastics with engineered microorganisms offers potential cost and environmental benefits, though it has not yet been proven viable on an industrial scale.
University inventors have developed genetically-engineered Pseudomonas putida strains that synergistically degrade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic into building blocks that can be used to create new materials. The use of multiple strains of bacteria instead of a single one allows for the use of a greater number of degradation pathways. This alleviates the metabolic pressure on the strains and reduces the effects of toxic starting materials and degradation products, increasing efficiency.
Chemical agents such as sarin gas are extremely potent, with exposed victims succumbing to repiratory paralysis within minutes of inhaling a lethal dose. Although sarin...
Chemical agents such as sarin gas are extremely potent, with exposed victims succumbing to repiratory paralysis within minutes of inhaling a lethal dose. Although sarin gas was outlawed by the Chemical Weapons Convention and is classified as a Schedule 1 substance, its use by the Syrian government in 2011 and subsequent uses of chemical weapons by Russia in Ukraine have increased the awareness and risk of exposure for military personnel and security contractors. Extremely sensitive detection of chemical agents is imperitive for providing personnel with the information necessary to avoid dangerous levels of exposure while confirming the presence or use of these agents.
Existing techniques for detecting nerve agents such as sarin are slow and have difficulty detecting levels below one part per billion, or ppb. This inability to identify trace levels makes it difficult to control or confirm exposure to this dangerous substance. Professor Paul Braun has developed a postage-stamp-sized device that is deployable in the field and is capable of detecting sarin at levels below 1 ppb.
Benefits
Extremely sensitive (part per billion) detection of sarin gas or other chemical agents
Field deployable
Publication
Amplified Detection of Chemical Warfare Agents Using Two-Dimensional Chemical Potential Gradients. Mohammad A. Ali, Tsung-Han Tsai, and Paul V. Braun. ACS Omega 2018 3 (11), 14665-14670
