Kristen Burson Awarded $300,000 NSF Grant to Advance Noble Gas Research
Ģý physics professor will expand collaboration with Brookhaven National Laboratory while building new research capabilities for students on campus.
Kristen Burson, associate professor of physics at Ģý, has been awarded a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance research into a new approach for separating noble gases, with potential applications in energy production, medicine, scientific research, and industry.
The grant supports Burson’s project, “EPSCoR Research Fellows: NSF: Investigating Energetics of Noble Gas Separation Using Silica Nanocages” (OIA-2624625). Through the project, Burson will expand her ongoing collaboration with Anibal Boscoboinik at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory in New York.
Noble gases are important in science, medicine, and industry, but separating and purifying them can be expensive and energy intensive, often requiring cryogenic temperatures. Burson’s research explores an alternative approach that uses silicate nanocages deposited on metal surfaces to capture and separate noble gases, even when they are present at low concentrations.
Exploring a New Approach to Noble Gas Separation
Burson and Boscoboinik are investigating a novel room-temperature method for separating noble gases such as radon, xenon, and argon based on their size. Their research uses silica nanocages — extremely small structures that can potentially capture and separate individual gases.
Developing more effective ways to separate and capture noble gases could have applications across a variety of fields. These include capturing byproducts of nuclear energy production, mitigating exposure to radioactive radon, and recovering costly noble gases used in medical imaging, scientific research, manufacturing, and other industrial applications.
The NSF funding will allow Burson to spend an extended period working in Boscoboinik’s laboratory and take advantage of the state-of-the-art research facilities available at Brookhaven. The grant will also support the development of a custom-designed experimental system at Ģý, expanding the types of experiments Burson and her students can conduct on campus.
Expanding Research Opportunities at Ģý
The new system will expand the experiments Burson and her students can undertake on campus and provide hands-on opportunities for undergraduate students interested in materials science and engineering. The project will also strengthen engineering education.
Burson will bring her knowledge of materials science and interfacial engineering into Ģý's classrooms, incorporating new content and engineering career exploration activities informed by her research.
Building on a Strong Collaboration
The project builds on an established partnership between Burson and Boscoboinik and demonstrates the opportunities that can come from collaboration between a primarily undergraduate institution and a national laboratory.
Burson’s work at Brookhaven has previously been supported by three Department of Energy Visiting Faculty Program grants. Those opportunities allowed her to conduct summer research at Brookhaven alongside a total of five Ģý students. Two of those students have since received Goldwater Scholarships.
The new NSF grant will help sustain that collaboration while bringing additional expertise and research infrastructure to Ģý.