Center for Functional Nanomaterials Seminar

Cerium oxide nanoparticles or nanoceria have a unique structure and interesting physicochemical properties and reactivity that vary with the size, shape and surface coating. These particles have been traditionally used in catalytic applications in automotive combustion engines, and solid oxide fuel cells, and more recently have been proposed as therapeutic agents in biomedicine. This presentation will discuss properties, characterization and novel applications of a new type of biomimetic cerium oxide nanostructures with regenerative properties and illustrate their potential as active materials for sensing and environmental remediation applications. These materials have tunable redox activity, optical and catalytic properties and can be used to replace enzymes in biological sensing mechanisms, or amplify chemical and biological detection schemes when used in combination with biomolecules. The resulting nanostructures integrate biorecognition, signal amplification and detection capabilities and can function as all-in-one biosensing devices. Design and performance characteristics of several types of ceria-based sensing platforms developed in our lab for point-of-care diagnosis, food quality control and environmental monitoring will be described. The presentation will also show the capability of these materials to function as biomimetic degradation catalysts enabling their use in separation membranes and flow through reactors for environmental remediation. Within this framework, recent work focusing on the development of a mesoporous framework containing highly active ultrasmall cerium oxide nanoparticles will be discussed with an example of application for the degradation of organophosphate agents. These materials have high stability, can be produced in large quantities at a low cost and have demonstrated excellent performance when used in field-deployable devices. Due to their high stability, activity and reusability, the application of these materials can be extend