Robert Hurt will be presenting Brown SRP research in a seminar at the Harvard School of Public Health on March 7, 2018 at 1:00 p.m.   The talk, entitled "Safe Design of Two-Dimensional Materials", is be part of the Harvard-NIEHS Nanosafety Center lecture series and is available as a webinar to outside participants.

 

Abstract: Ultrathin sheet-like 2D materials are an important and rapidly growing class of synthetic nanostructures. The premise of our research is that the biological responses to 2D materials are initiated by specific molecular events at the material-fluid interface that can be understood through fundamental materials chemistry and physics. Their extreme geometries, which combine atomic-scale thickness with micron-scale lateral dimension, are uncommon in nature, and the resulting geometric mismatch with natural biological tissue gives rise to novel modes of mechanical interaction and stress during cellular uptake and processing. A recent thermodynamic analysis shows that many emerging 2D materials will become non-equilibrium structures when introduced into biological fluid phases, and will undergo chemical transformations in parallel with the biological response. Of particular importance are dissolution processes that destroy the nanosheet geometry and create pools of biodissolution products that can be main drivers of the biological response. This talk will consider the fundamental properties and behaviors that govern the safe design of 2D materials. Case studies on graphene, MoS2, and MoO3 will emphasize bio-transformations and persistence as well as unusual shape-dependent effects on membranes during cellular uptake and vesicular packaging.

To register, please visit here.

This webinar is part of the Harvard HSPH-NIEHS Nanosafety Center 2017-2018 Nanolecture Series.