Research Collaboration Benefits Students, Faculty, and the Planet

RESEARCH COLLABORATION

Benefits Students, Faculty, and the Planet

By Lisa Leffel ’98

Wisconsin Lutheran College Professor of Chemistry Dr. Dan Ebeling ’98 (pictured in inset) has a passion for analytical chemistry. Since 2007, while on a sabbatical from teaching, Ebeling has been collaborating with Dr. Joseph Stetter, President of KWJ Engineering and SPEC Sensors, to develop electrochemical sensors that detect and monitor a variety of gases including carbon monoxide, ozone, hydrogen sulfide, and other environmental pollutants.

Why sensors? Ebeling shares, “There’s a human health aspect to the research that makes a difference in life quality, not only in the United States, but also abroad.” The sensors Ebeling has helped develop have been implemented across the globe to alert their users of dangerous air quality, to build portable water purification systems, and to sterilize surgical equipment.

Through a partnership with Intel, 100,000 sensors were distributed in the form of bracelets to women in Pakistan, where there is a history of low birth weights in children due to air quality from cooking in poorly ventilated areas. The bracelets alert women, in their own language, when the air quality is poor so they can avoid breathing in the harmful chemicals.

According to Ebeling, there are hundreds of thousands of the sensors deployed in “smart cities” like Chicago and London. Connected to structures such as light poles and buildings throughout the cities, the sensors collect data to measure air quality. On days when ozone levels are elevated, city officials can alert their residents – especially those with asthma and other breathing compromises – to avoid the outdoors. The sensors also can detect pollutants from factories that are not following government guidelines. In addition, the sensors can identify fires by measuring high levels of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in the air, resulting in faster emergency response times. The technology used for “smart cities” is also available at the “smart home” level. The technology has advanced so far that sensors can be implemented into cell phones and other personal devices.

students, Ebeling has partnered with KWJ Engineering to write grants for the undergraduate research he performs with his students at WLC. In addition to funding from KWJ Engineering, Ebeling and his students have received grants from the National Science Foundation, Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, and the Department of Defense. Since 2007, Ebeling has traveled each year to the Silicon Valley area in California to visit with Stetter and his team at the KWJ Engineering and SPEC Sensors headquarters. Ebeling reports on work that he’s been doing with his students and gathers new ideas to explore back in his lab at WLC. Stetter has also visited WLC several times to work with students on projects and to give guest lectures in chemistry courses, including earlier this year. Together, their work has resulted in a U.S. Patent for their printed gas sensor.

With a focus on new ideas to develop smaller and more costeffective chemical sensors, students in Ebeling’s Instrumental Analysis class research and create their own innovative prototypes. Ebeling highlights: “Maggie (Simon) Paton ’12 designed a functioning prototype of possibly the smallest electrochemical sensor at the time. Jonas Gertsch ’12 and Aaron Vanderhyde ’11 helped develop the formulas necessary for making the sensing materials, and these formulas are in hundreds of thousands of sensors that are deployed across the world. AJ Armstrong ’13 worked on a project funded by NASA to clean water using ozone with a small plasma source. As a part of their thermodynamics lab, Jeremy Vanderhyde ’15 and Allee (Klug) Marti ’17 synthesized and tested a room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) for use in experimental sensors. These materials make it possible to use the sensors in extreme temperature and humidity conditions.”

Through summer research opportunities for students and undergraduate research course credits, Ebeling has engaged even more students in the electrochemical sensor development project. In fact, for their significant contributions, Gertsch and Armstrong were named co-authors on two scholarly publications with Ebeling and other members of the KWJ Engineering research team.

Gertsch just completed his Ph.D. at the University of Colorado Boulder in a physical chemistry and mechanical engineering group. Marti is finishing her Ph.D. in physical chemistry at Colorado State University. Aaron Vanderhyde is a coatings chemist at Engineered Custom Coatings, and Jeremy Vanderhyde is now the building manager of Generac Hall at WLC.

“The project has definitely helped prepare them for their future,” according to Ebeling.

Left to right: Daniel Bronner, Logan Ascher, Dr. Joseph Stetter

PUBLICATIONS: J. Gertsch, A. Armstrong,

D. Ebeling, A. Shirke, J. Stetter. “Water Reclamation Using a Microplasma Ozone Source — E. coli and Organic Dye Destruction” International Ozone Association — Pan American Group Proceedings, Milwaukee, WI, Sept. 2012. “Novel Process Technologies for Disinfection of Potable Water: Wastewater Reclamation Using a Microplasma Ozone Source — E. coli and Organic Dye Destruction.” J. Gertsch, A. Armstrong, D. Ebeling, J. Stetter, A. Shirke, ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Meeting, Cincinnati, OH, Oct. 2012.

PATENT: J. Stetter, E. Stetter, D. Ebeling, M. Findlay. “Printed Gas Sensor” U.S. Patent 8,795,484 B2 (2014).