MARCH 2024 Southwest Retort

SOUTHWESTRETORT

SEVENTY-SIXTH YEAR March 2024

Published for the advancement of Chemists, Chemical Engineers and Chemistry in this area

published by

The Dallas-Fort Worth Section, with the cooperation of five other local sections of the American Chemical Society in the Southwest Region.

Vol. 76(7) March 2024

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Editor: Connie Hendrickson: retort@acsdfw.org

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The Southwest Retort is published monthly, September through May, by the Dallas-Ft. Worth Section of the American Chemical Society, Inc., for the ACS Sections of the Southwest Region.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTICLES and COLUMNS

Letter from the Editor…..…..……..............20 And Another Thing…………………...….....6

NEWS SHORTS

Pesticides to help protect seeds can adversely affect earthworms’ health…..…..…..…..….5

Lithium-ion batteries from drones might find second lives in less ‘stressful’devices...8

A bright idea for recycling rare-earth phosphors from used fluorescent bulbs....….......9

Want fewer microplastics in your tap water? Try boiling it first……………………….....11

‘Artificial tongue’detects and inactivates common mouth bacteria...……………..….12

A new vibrant blue pottery pigment with less cobalt...……..……….....……..…………….14

Mercury levels in tuna remain nearly unchanged since 1971, study says…………...15

Compounds in female ginseng could lead to new osteoporosis treatments……………...16 ANNOUNCEMENTS

ACSDFW Chemistry of Beer…………...….7

ContacttheDFWSection

General: info@acsdfw.org

Education: ncw@acsdfw.org

Elections:

candidates@acsdfw.org

Facebook: DFWACS

Twitter: acsdfw

Meeting in Miniature……………….……..10

In Memoriam: AndrewArmstrong..…......13

INDEX OF ADVERTISERS

Huffman Laboratories……………..….........3

TMJ Data Entry and Editing.……….......…3 ANA-LAB…………………………...…..…..4

2023 DFW Section

Chair:

Chair

Past

Treasurer:

Secretary:

Rebecca

From the ACS Press Room

Pesticides to help protect seeds can adversely affect earthworms’ health

“Mitochondrial DNA Damage in Earthworms: A Hazard Associated with Sublethal Systemic Pesticide Exposures”

Environmental Science & Technology Letters

While pesticides protect crops from hungry animals, pesky insects, or even microbial infections, they also impact other vital organisms, including bees and earthworms. And today, research published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters reveals that worms are affected by the relatively small amounts of chemicals that can leach out of pesticide-treated seeds. Exposure to nonlethal amounts of these insecticides and fungicides resulted in poor weight gain and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) damage in the worms.

Pesticide treatment can be introduced at several different stages of a plant’s life, either by covering seeds before they’re sown or spraying already grown crops. Oftentimes, different chemicals are applied at the same time to maximize their efficiency. Neonicotinoids, also known as neonics, are one common class of insecticides used today in the U.S. and other countries, though many of them are banned in the European Union. Recent research has shown that these insecticides and many fungicides persist in groundwater and soil, where earthworms may encounter them. One method to monitor the health of the impacted worms is through changes to the organisms’ weight and

mtDNA damage. Unlike DNA held in a cell’s nucleus, mtDNA can’t repair itself as well, and thus can help indicate less obvious, “off target” effects of a particular environmental toxin. Chensheng (Alex) Lu and colleagues wanted to use this approach to investigate how realistic amounts and combinations of neonics and difenoconazole (DIF) fungicide affected earthworms.

In laboratory experiments, the team exposed groups of juvenile earthworms (Eisenia fetida) to individual pesticides, and combinations of neonics and DIF, in concentrations that mimicked residues left behind by pesticide-treated seeds. After 30 days, the worms were weighed and their mtDNA damage was examined. While all the worms survived, the earthworms in single pesticide-treated soil gained 30 to 80% less weight during that pe-

Continued on page 17

Earthworms exhibit signs of environmental toxicity when exposed to nonlethal doses of some pesticides. Qing Cheng

AndAnother Thing... Stepping Up

Denise Lynn Merkle, PhD

dmerkle@sciconsult.com

Some things don't leave the mind, no matter the effort used to forget them. This can be horrible - or not. For example, Carlos Sainz, Jr's1 appendicitis definitely caused 'Stepping Up' to occupy my mind. Unless one is the patient or a physician, appendicitis probably ranks fairly low on the 'Let's Dwell' scale- but it factored significantly into last weekend's Formula 1 (F1) race. On March 8, Sainz, Jr had surgery to deal with the attack of his intestinal process. While F1 drivers are known for their extreme fitness and ability to persevere through physical discomfort, enduring a 50 lap Grand Prix on a nearly 4mile circuit 24hours after an appendectomy would be way too much. Ferrari pivoted - and called up its youngest F1 driver ever: 18-year-old British racer Oliver Bearman2. Hours later, Bearman drove the #38 Ferrari to an 11th place finish in Qualifier 2 (Q2), an amazing feat for a true F1 novice. Although 11th in Q2 bumped him out of Q3, the race that sets the starting lineup for the top 10 cars, Bearman ultimately finished 7th in the Grand Prix. Sir Lewis Hamilton (33), 7-time F1 champion, finished 9th4 .

This is why a feat like Oliver Bearman's stays on the mind. It's a truly astonishing accomplishment - yet every single day regular people who have dedicated their lives to their training, careers, families, goals, countries, organizations, whatever - step up and perform amazing feats that contribute to the world and wow others along the way. Most aren't 18-year-olds who suddenly race F1 cars as a result of rogue appendices, but they step up.

So. When the opportunity arises to deploy those fabulous skills you've worked like crazy to develop, get in the proverbial car - and Buckle Up, Buttercup. The checkered flag5 is waving for you.

1) https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.breaking-sainz-ruled-out-of-saudi-arabian-gpwith-appendicitis-as-f2-racer.2JzIonRBBDEjEb2AlkdVfl.html

2) https://www.fiaformula2.com/Drivers/1228/Oliver-Bearman

3) https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=saudi+arabia+f1&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF-8

4) https://www.formula1.com/en/drivers/lewis-hamilton.html

5) https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/xf@chex.html

From the ACS Press Room

Lithium-ion batteries from drones might find second lives in less ‘stressful’ devices

“Lithium-IonBatteryPowerPerformance AssessmentfortheClimbStepofanElectricVerticalTakeoffandLanding (eVTOL)Application”

ACSEnergyLetters

Taking flight can be stressful especially for a lithium-ion battery that powers a drone. Too much strain on these cells causes damage and shortens a device’s overall lifespan. Research in ACS Energy Letters shows the potential to improve batteries in aerial electric vehicles that take off and land vertically. The team developed a new electrolyte to address these challenges and said the “stressed out” batteries could also have second lives in less strenuous applications.

Lithiumion batteries (LiBs) have exploded in popularity thanks to their ability to pack a large amount of power in a relatively small and light package. But they aren’t perfect, especially when a lot of that power needs to be drawn from the battery cell in a

short amount of time. For example, drones put a high strain on their batteries during takeoff. While hobby drones traditionally use lithium-ion polymer batteries instead of LiBs, the latter’s high energy density is better -suited for heavier-duty drones, such as those that deliver cargo to remote locations. To better understand how high strain events like liftoff can affect LiB stability, Ilias Belharouak, Marm Dixit and colleagues “stressed out” a set of LiBs and investigated how their performance changed.

The researchers manufactured a set of LiB cells containing a specially designed, fastcharging and discharging electrolyte. Then, they drained 15 times the battery’s optimal capacity, the total amount of energy it could store, for 45 seconds. This process simulated the rapid, high-power draw, also known as a discharge, needed during vertical takeoff. After the initial discharge pulse, the cells were further drained at a more normal discharge rate and then recharged. The team found that none of the tested cells lasted more than 100 cycles under these high-stress conditions, with most starting to show decreased performance around 85 cycles.

After being “stressed,” the researchers subjected the LiB cells to a more normal, lower rate power draw. In this experiment, they observed that the cells partially retained their capacities under low-rate conditions, but failed quickly when put under rapid current

Continued on page 17

Drones, similar to that illustrated, “stress out” their batteries during takeoff, but researchers say the cells could be reused in other less demanding applications. Mopic/Shutterstock.com

From the ACS Press Room

A bright idea for recycling rare-earth phosphors from used fluorescent bulbs

“Design of a Magnetic Field-Controlled Chromatography Process for Efficient and Selective Fractionation of Rare Earth Phosphors from End-of-Life Fluorescent Lamps”

ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

Recycling facilities collect glass and mercury from thrown away fluorescent bulbs, but discarded lighting could also supply rare-earth metals for reuse. The 17 metals referred to as rare earths aren’t all widely available and aren’t easily extracted with existing recycling methods. Now, researchers have found a simpler way to collect slightly magnetic particles that contain rare-earth metals from spent fluorescent bulbs. The team describes its proof-of-concept magnetized chromatography method in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

Many modern technologies, such as electric vehicles and microchips, use rare earths because of their unique magnetic, electrical and optical characteristics. However, only a handful of countries have untapped deposits of these metals. Large-scale rare-earth recycling from outdated, broken devices is challenging because the metals are integrated into different components and are present only in small amounts. In discarded fluorescent lighting, mixtures of rare-earth-based phosphors, the substances that contribute to a light’s color, are found in a thin coating inside the bulb. So, Laura Kuger, Matthias

Franzreb and colleagues wanted to develop a low-tech method to easily collect these phosphors by taking advantage of the elements’ weak magnetic properties.

Magnets could extract valuable rare-earth-containing phosphors from discarded fluorescent lamps.Tribex/ Shutterstock.com

The researchers used a wire coil to externally apply a magnetic field to a glass chromatography column filled with stacked disks of stainless-steel mesh. They then prepared a demonstration sample to pass through the column to see if it could capture the phosphors. First, the researchers obtained three different weakly magnetic rare-earth phosphors from a lamp manufacturer. Next, the team mimicked old fluorescent lamp parts by mixing the phosphor particles in a liquid solution with nonmagnetic silica oxide and strongly magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, representing glass and metal components in the bulbs, respectively. Then, when the liquid

Continued on page 18

From the ACS Press Room

Want fewer microplastics in your tap water? Try boiling it first

“Drinking Boiled Tap Water Reduces Human Intake of Nanoplastics and Microplastics”

Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Nano- and microplastics are seemingly everywhere water, soil and the air. While many creative strategies have been attempted to get rid of these plastic bits, one unexpectedly effective solution for cleaning up drinking water, specifically, might be as simple as brewing a cup of tea or coffee. As reported in ACS’

water filtration systems capture NMPs, but simple, inexpensive methods are needed to substantially help reduce human plastic consumption. So, Zhanjun Li, Eddy Zeng and colleagues wanted to see whether boiling could be an effective method to help remove NMPs from both hard and soft tap water.

Environmental Science & Technology

Letters, boiling and filtering calciumcontaining tap water could help remove nearly 90% of the nano- and microplastics present.

Contamination of water supplies with nanoand microplastics (NMPs), which can be as small as one thousandth of a millimeter in diameter or as large as 5 millimeters, has become increasingly common. The effects of these particles on human health are still under investigation, though current studies suggest that ingesting them could affect the gut microbiome. Some advanced drinking

The researchers collected samples of hard tap water from Guangzhou, China, and spiked them with different amounts of NMPs. Samples were boiled for five minutes and allowed to cool. Then, the team measured the free-floating plastic content. Boiling hard water, which is rich in minerals, will naturally form a chalky substance known as limescale, or calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Results from these experiments indicated that as the water temperature increased, CaCO3 formed incrustants, or crystalline structures, which encapsulated the plastic particles. Zeng says that over time, these incrustants would build up like typical limescale, at which point they could be scrubbed away to remove the NMPs. He suggests any remaining incrustants floating in the water could be removed by pouring it through a simple filter such as a coffee filter.

In the tests, the encapsulation effect was more pronounced in harder water in a sample containing 300 milligrams of CaCO3 per liter of water, up to 90% of freefloating MNPs were removed after boiling.

Continued on page 17

Boiling tap water can trap nano- and microplastics inside limescale particles, which can be easily filtered out.

Eddy Zeng

From the ACS Press Room

‘Artificial tongue’ detects and inactivates common mouth bacteria

“Enhanced “Electronic Tongue” for Dental Bacterial Discrimination and Elimination Based on a DNA-Encoded Nanozyme Sensor Array”

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

From the fuzzy feeling on your teeth to the unfortunate condition of halitosis, bacteria shape mouth health. When dental illnesses take hold, diagnosis and treatment is necessary, but identifying the microorganisms behind an infection can be a lengthy and expensive process. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have designed a chemical sensor array, or an artificial tongue, that distinguishes dental bacteria and can inactivate them.

When bacteria are suspected as the agent behind dental disease, such as cavities or periodontitis, the first step is to identify the source. Traditional detection and identification methods can involve culturing or looking for specific DNA markers belonging to different species using sophisticated equipment. So, Na Lu, Zisheng Tang and coworkers wanted to investigate a simple and less expensive alternative: sensor arrays known as electronic or artificial tongues. Previously developed artificial tongues have detected and measured several types of bacteria, similar to how a real tongue can taste multiple flavors at once. And the researchers wanted to add in the capability of reducing the effects of, or inactivating, the identified dental bacteria.

The researchers turned to a nanoscopic particle that mimics natural enzymes, called a nanozyme, and made them from iron oxide particles coated in DNA strands. When hydrogen peroxide and a colorless indicator were added in solution, the presence of nanozymes caused the indicator to turn bright blue. However, bacteria that adhered to the DNA decreased the nanozyme’s reactivity, reducing the amount of blue color produced. The researchers coated nanozymes with different DNA strands so that each type of bacteria could be linked to a unique change in color signals. To test the DNA-nanozyme system, as an artificial tongue, the researchers created samples of 11 different dental bacteria species. The sensor array was able to identify all the bacteria in artificial saliva samples. Then, using the DNA-encoded nanozyme sensor array, the researchers were able to distinguish whether a dental plaque sample came from a healthy volunteer or from a person with cavities.

In addition, the DNA-encoded nanozyme sensor array had antibacterial effects on the dental bacteria species tested. Compared to

Continued on page 18

A new chemical sensor array detects and inactivates several disease-causing dental bacteria. Maxx-Studio/Shutterstock.com

In Memoriam

Andrew “Andy”Armstrong

Dr. Andrew T Armstrong, a long-time, valued member of the DFW Section, died March 7, 2024 in Arlington, Texas. Born May 26, 1935, in Haslett, Texas, Andrew grew up on his family’s farm in Keller, Texas and graduated Keller High School in 1953. He received both his Bachelors and Masters degrees from North Texas State University (now University of North Texas) in 1958 and 1959. Andrew met Kay Masters while attending North Texas State University and they married May 31, 1958.

He held his first teaching position at West Texas State University in 1959. He received his PhD in Physical Chemistry from Louisiana State University in 1967, and did a post doc at UCLA and then went back to Baton Rouge for a teaching position at LSU. In 1968, Andrew accepted a teaching position at the University of Texas at Arlington.

By 1975 he and his wife Kay were analyzing fire debris samples for the Arlington Fire Department Arson Investigative Unit. Kay would receive the samples, set up the extraction process and complete the analysis while Andrew was teaching young adults the finer points of covalent bonds. When home in the evenings, Andrew would interpret the data from that day’s tests and sign any reports. The name of their fledgling business was Armstrong Consultants, later renamed, Armstrong Forensic Laboratory. Dr. Armstrong wrote one of the first papers on the recovery of ignitable liquids from fire debris in 1978.

In his almost 50 years building an internationally recognized consulting analytical lab, Andrew received many personal and professional achievements. He is one of only two individuals to ever receive the Arlington, Texas Fire Department’s highest civilian honor - White Helmet Award, 1977, Honorary Fire Chief, Houston, Texas, 1992, Outstanding Alumni of the Year for Excellence in Chemistry, University of North Texas, Denton, 2002 and Texas Family Business of the Year – Small Family Business, presented by the Baylor University, The Institute for Family Business, Waco, Texas, 2008 and the Sisyphus Award from the ASTM International Forensic Science Committee Career Achievement, are among his most cherished.

The business began in 1977 with ten case files being completed and ended the 2023 year with over 20,000 case files. Andrew has testified in court more often than most lawyers have presented cases to a jury.

Andrew had only three rules for Life: Tell the Truth; Facts are Facts; and I Don’t Know is a Good Answer.

From the ACS Press Room

A new vibrant blue pottery pigment with less cobalt

“Application and Properties of Co2+ -Doped BaAl2Si2O8 Blue Pigments in Glazes”

ACS Applied Optical Materials

Whether ultramarine, cerulean, Egyptian or cobalt, blue pigments have colored artworks for centuries. Now, seemingly out of the blue, scientists have discovered a new blue pigment that uses less cobalt but still maintains a brilliant shine. Though something like this might only happen once in a blue moon, the cobalt-doped barium aluminosilicate colorant described in ACS Applied Optical Materials withstands the high temperatures found in a kiln and provides a bright color to glazed tiles.

Many of the brilliant blue pigments like those in antique Chinese porcelain or works by Claude Monet make use of cobaltbased compounds, including the famous “cobalt blue.” Though the metal itself is toxic, in mineral form it has high chemical and thermal stability, and those properties make cobalt aluminate one of the only pigments suitable for hightemperature applications, including pottery glazes. Today, cobalt is used in lithium-ion

batteries, and demand for the metal ore will likely increase as the need for battery power grows. As a result, scientists including Peng Jiang and colleagues are searching for alternative pigments that require fewer cobalt ions and still maintain a bright blue hue.

The team based their new pigment off a barium feldspar mineral (BaAl2Si2O8-) that also features high temperature and chemical stability. Compounds containing barium, aluminum, silicon and cobalt were ground together, pressed into a sheet, then heated to above 2550 degrees Fahrenheit to form the pigment. Then the researchers mixed the powder into a ceramic glaze, sprayed it onto tiles and fired them to produce glazed pieces of pottery. The pigment was stable at temperatures up to 3200 degrees well above the typical firing temperature of a pottery kiln and only experienced slight color changes when exposed to either acidic or alkaline solutions, demonstrating the compound’s stability. Tiles sprayed with the pigmented glaze maintained a smooth, bright surface that deepened in color as the concentration of cobalt in the pigment increased. The researchers say that this new powder substantially reduces the amount of cobalt needed, resulting in a cheaper, easier-to-produce blue ceramic pigment.

ACS

The authors acknowledge funding from the Beijing Nova Program, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, the Youth Teacher International Exchange & Growth Program, and the National Science Foundation.

Tiles produced bright colors when glazed with a new blue pigment (right column) or an acidified version of the pigment powder (left column).

Adapted from

Applied Optical Materials 2024, DOI: 10.1021/acsaom.3c00419

From the ACS Press Room

Mercury levels in tuna remain nearly unchanged since 1971, study says

“Stable Tuna Mercury Concentrations since 1971 Illustrate Marine Inertia and the Need for Strong Emission Reductions under the Minamata Convention”

Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Tuna is one of the most popular seafoods worldwide. But this protein-rich fish can build up high levels of methylmercury from feeding on contaminated prey, like smaller fish or crustaceans. Despite efforts to reduce mercury emissions into the environment, researchers report in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters that levels in tuna appear to be unchanged since 1971. They warn that more aggressive emission reduction targets are needed to start nudging down tuna mercury levels.

Environmental protection policies have helped reduce mercury pollution from human activities like burning coal and mining worldwide. However, people can still be exposed to methylmercury, and unborn babies and young children are at highest risk of harm. Methylmercury is a particularly toxic chemical that affects the nervous system and is expected to be the primary form of mercury in reference to tuna contamination. So, researchers set out to determine whether lower atmospheric emissions resulted in lower concentrations of mercury in the oceans, specifically the methylmercury found in food sources that sit at the top of the food chain like tuna. Anne Lorrain, Anaïs Médieu and

David Point worked with an international team of researchers to investigate trends of mercury in tuna over the past 50 years. They also wanted to simulate the impact of different environmental policies on oceanic and tuna mercury levels in the future.

Levels of mercury in tuna have remained nearly the same for the past 50 years despite drops in atmospheric mercury emissions. Researchers say it may take decades and very strict environmental policies to start nudging those levels down. HandmadePictures/Shutterstock.com

The researchers compiled previously published data and their own data on total mercury levels from nearly 3,000 tuna muscle samples of fish caught in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans from 1971 to 2022. They specifically looked at tropical tuna skipjack, bigeye and yellowfin. These three species account for 94% of global tuna catches. Because they don’t undergo transoceanic migrations, any contamination found in the animals’ muscles likely reflects the waters they swim in.

After standardizing the data to allow for comparison across decades and regions, the researchers observed stable tuna mercury concentrations worldwide from 1971 to 2022, except for an increase in the northwestern Pacific Ocean in the late 1990s. How-

Continued on page 19

From the ACS Press Room

Compounds in female ginseng could lead to new osteoporosis treatments

“Discovery of a Potent Antiosteoporotic Drug Molecular Scaffold Derived from Angelica sinensis and Its Bioinspired Total Synthesis”

ACS Central Science

With ever-increasing life expectancy comes the challenge of treating age-related disorders such as osteoporosis. Although there are effective drugs for treating this metabolic bone disease, they can be expensive and have side effects, limiting their availability to some people. In the search for alternative drug candidates, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have discovered and fully replicated a compound from a botanical source, female ginseng, that had potent antiosteoporotic activity in cellular tests.

according to the International Osteoporosis Foundation. The disease can progress to significant disability, such as hip and spine fractures, and financial burdens, such as lost wages and hospitalization. Several drugs have proven effective in either preventing bone loss or promoting bone formation, but each comes with potential side effects, including injury to jaw and leg bones. Searching for alternative treatments, Hao Gao, XinLuan Wang and colleagues turned to female ginseng (Angelica sinensis), which has long been used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat osteoporosis.

Osteoporosis and low bone mass impact 54 million American adults over the age of 50,

The researchers performed chemical extraction on the medicinal plant and identified two new compounds, calling them falcarinphthalide A and B, that were structurally unlike anything previously discovered in female ginseng. They also determined potential biosynthetic precursors and metabolic pathways that the plants use to form these compounds. Then, with these mechanisms as starting points, the team devised lab synthesis methods and produced the compounds at quantities sufficient for biological testing. Inspired by the traditional efficacy of female ginseng, the team tested the compounds for their impact on the formation of cells called osteoclasts, which facilitate bone loss. They observed that only falcarinphthalide A and its precursors showed osteoclast inhibitory activity and an anti-osteoporotic effect. Further analysis showed that falcarinphthalide A

Continued on page 19

Compounds from the traditional medicine plant known as female ginseng might block bone loss and osteoporosis.

Light Stock/Shutterstock.com

From the ACS Press Room

Pesticides...adversely affect earthworms’ health

Continued from page 5

riod than a control group living in untreated soil. Additionally, the worms exposed to one of the four tested neonicotinoids and DIF at the same time gained considerably less weight than those exposed to a single compound. Pesticide exposure also resulted in a significant increase in mtDNA damage. Because mitochondria generate most of the energy within cells, damage to their DNA could interrupt cellular functions and other metabolic processes. The researchers say that these findings establish a link between neonics and fungicide mixtures that are likely present in the environment and earthworm health, which could inform the unexpected risks of using neonics in seed treatments.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Lithium-ion batteries from drones

Continued from page 8

drain conditions again. These results indicate that the LiBs typically used in drones might not have the characteristics necessary for long -term, high-stress usages, but they could be retired and meet more typical power demands in other applications, such as battery backups for power supplies and energy-grid storage. The researchers say that more work is needed to develop alternative battery technologies that are better suited for vertical takeoff and other high-power-demand applications.The authors acknowledge funding from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Army Research Laboratory. The research was performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory.

Microplastics in your tap water?

Continued from page 11

However, even in soft water samples (less than 60 milligrams CaCO3 per liter), boiling still removed around 25% of NMPs. The researchers say that this work could provide a simple, yet effective, method to reduce NMP consumption.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

From ACS Press Room

A bright idea for recycling

rare-earth phosphors

Continued from page 9

was injected and flowed through the chromatography column, the phosphors and iron oxide nanoparticles stuck to the magnetized stainless-steel mesh, while the water and silica particles flowed out the other end.

To remove the phosphors from the column, the researchers slowly reduced the strength of the external magnetic field while rinsing the column with liquid. Finally, the strongly magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles were released from the column when the magnetic field was turned off. The researchers observed that their method recovered 93% of the rare-earth phosphors from the initial mixture that mimicked lamp components. While more work is needed to separate individual rare-earth elements from the phosphors and to scale the method for industrial recycling applications, Kuger, Franzreb and colleagues say their approach is a step toward a practical way to turn old light bulbs into new technologies for a brighter and more sustainable future.

The authors acknowledge funding from the German Research Foundation.

‘Artificial tongue’

Continued from page 12

controls without the nanozymes, three typical bacterial species were inactivated in solutions containing the nanozyme system. Scanning electronic microscopic images suggest to the researchers that the nanozyme system destroyed the bacteria membranes. They suggest that this sensor system could also be used in the future to diagnose and treat bacterial dental diseases.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the Program for Professor of Special Appointment (Eastern Scholar) at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning, and the Municipal Science and Technology Committee of Shanghai Outstanding Academic Leaders Plan (Youth).

From ACS Press Room

Continued

Mercury levels in tuna

Continued from page 15

ever, over the same period airborne mercury decreased globally. The team theorized that the static levels in tuna may be caused by upward mixing of “legacy” mercury from deeper in the ocean water into the shallower depths where tropical tuna swim and feed. The legacy mercury could have been emitted years or even decades prior and doesn’t yet reflect the effects of decreasing emissions in the air.

The researchers’ mathematical models that simulate three progressively more restrictive environmental policies support their theory. The models predict even the most restrictive emission policy would take 10 to 25 years to influence oceanic mercury concentrations, and then drops in tuna would follow decades later. While the researchers recognize their forecasting does not consider all variables in tuna ecology or marine biogeochemistry, they assert their findings point to a need for a worldwide effort to more aggressively reduce mercury emissions and a commitment to long-term and continuous mercury monitoring in ocean life.

The authors acknowledge funding from the French National Agency for Research, University of Western Brittany and were assisted by collaborations under the international framework of the Integrated Marine Biosphere Research regional program Climate Impacts on Oceanic Top Predators.

Compounds in female ginseng

Continued from page 16

blocked key molecular pathways involved in osteoclast generation. The researchers say that this study opens up the possibilities for new osteoporosis treatments based on the female ginseng compound, whether in its current form or as a structural template for further drug development.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Key Research and Development Program of China, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Guangdong Major Project of Basic and Applied Basic Research, Guangdong International Science and Technology Cooperation Base, Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Higher Education Institution, Local Innovative and Research Teams Project of Guangdong Pearl River Talents Program, Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Universities Joint Laboratory for the Internationalization of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Traditional Chinese Medicine & Disease Susceptibility, Guangzhou Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, and the Young Elite Scientists Sponsorship Program by China Association of Chinese Medicine.

From the Editor

The DFW Section Meeting-in-Miniature is scheduled for Saturday, April 27; deadline for registration and abstracts is April 17. The link for both registration and abstracts is udallas.edu/meeting-in-miniature.

My interest was caught particularly by the article on mercury levels in tuna. The authors find that that levels in tuna appear to be unchanged since 1971...in 1971 I was in graduate school, and a lot of research was being done on mercury in tuna. BUT over the same period (1971-2022), airborne mercury levels decreased. So what is the source of the mercury in tuna? The authors theorize that stable levels in tuna may be caused by upward mixing of “legacy” mercury from deeper in the ocean water into shallower depths. Mathematical models used by the researchers predict that “even the most restrictive emission policy would take 10 to 25 years to influence oceanic mercury concentrations, and then drops in tuna would follow decades later”. That’s gonna put me off on tuna salad...