Honorable Mention: Iron Wood

Photography by Sofia Feliciano, graduate student,
College of Engineering and Computer Science

A microscale image of the surface of a hybrid material synthesized in the lab. Using wood as the vessel, iron oxide particles were synthesized in situ inside the cell wall. The image was taken using scanning electron microscopy, which uses a focused beam of electrons to scan the surface of the sample for data collection. This hybrid material is synthesized for pollutant remediation. Iron oxides are known to absorb pollutants in water bodies, such as our contaminant of focus, arsenic. Inserting these particles into an organic scaffold immobilizes the iron oxides, ensuring they do not leach out into the environment it was created to clean up.