銀納米粒子將防治真菌病害

　　8月25日VOA聽力：銀納米粒子將防治真菌病害

 

　　Large farms use various chemicals to fight fungi andbacteria that attack crops, and others such as e.coli that are harmful to humans.

　　Among the most potent elements of modernpesticides and even some antibiotics are silver-based nanoparticles, which attach to microbes anddestroy them. But as those nanoparticles degrade, they release the silver from their metalliccore, which may be harmful.

　　“The effects are not, potentially maybe not so good for environment or human ingestion, sothe problem is how do you potentially remove that danger from engineered nanomaterials,”

　　Velev and Ph.D. student Alexander Richter discovered that silver-based nanoparticles can bereplaced with non-harmful nanoparticles based on an organic polymer called lignin, naturallyfound in most plants.

　　Such nanoparticles, designated as EbNPs, also carry highly active silver ions that attach to andkill bacteria, but their core is biodegradable and not harmful to the environment.

　　“By doing so, we could actually make the nanoparticles keep their functionality but make themdegradable while also reducing the amount of the silver core in the nanoparticle system,”

　　Based on their research, Velev and Richter founded a start-up company that will continuedeveloping the method for industrial-grade production.

　　“We believe that this can lead to a new generation of agricultural treatment products, thatthey're going to be more efficient, that they're going to use less chemicals, and that they'regoing to be more friendly toward the environment,”

　　They say their biodegradable nanoparticles could also be used in consumer products such asdisinfectants and personal hygiene items.

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