Ronald Kent, a CEINT PhD candidate at Virginia Tech, has been selected as a winner of a 2014 C. Ellen Gonter award for his paper Controlled Evaluation of Silver Nanoparticle Sulfidation: Reaction Mechanism and Particle Stability
. The award is presented to up to seven graduate students annually who submit the highest quality research papers. It is the highest award offered to students by the Environmental Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. Ronald will present his paper at the C. Ellen Gonter Environmental Chemistry Awards Symposium at the upcoming fall ACS national meeting in San Francisco.
Under the direction of advisor Peter Vikesland, Ronald contributes to Theme 1: Exposure: Transport and Transformations and Core A: Manufactured Nanomaterials. Ronald’s doctoral research specifically probes chemical transformations of metallic nanoparticles. His methodology employs a form of lithography that eliminates confounding variables such as particle aggregation and unrealistically high nanomaterial concentrations. These advantages allow him to perform experiments that delve deeper into fundamental aspects of nanomaterial behavior in the environment.
Controlled Evaluation of Silver Nanoparticle Dissolution Using Atomic Force Microscopy
Ronald D. Kent and Peter J. Vikesland
Environmental Science & Technology 2012 46 (13), 6977-6984