Procurement Of A Zetasizer For Nanomaterial Characterization To Understand Food Safety Issues Related To Nanoparticle-Food Interactions

<p>Project Goals:</p><p><ol><li> Immediate goal of this project is to procure a Zetasizer for the measurement of (1) particle size with specific interest on nanoparticles, </li><li> zeta potential, and </li><li> molecular weight of biological particles and use these measurements in research pertaining to nanoparticle and food crop interactions.</li></ol></p><p> Long-term Goals: The long-term and overarching goal of this project is to enhance the research capability of the Project Director (PD) and the faculty involved in area of food safety. The PD and faculty involved in this proposal are working on areas related food safety and agriculture. The PD and other faculty members will be using this equipment to characterize nano- and microparticles (including bacteria and fungi) in aqueous media and interpret and use the results to improve agriculture practices in the United States with specific emphasis of agricultural food. The team put together by the PD are multi-disciplinary in nature and will be a perfect group to work on complex problems related to immerging technologies (e.g., nanotechnology). Establishing long-term collaborations will help the PD to achieve the overarching goal in this project. The PD and other participating faculty plan to continue their collaborations so that they can contribute to the body of knowledge in nanotechnology through life-cycle studies, and help in developing models for sustainable nanotechnology products for food and agricultural applications.</p><p> Specific Objectives: The specific objective of this research is to procure the equipment and set it up for immediate use by the PD and other major users' research groups</p>