Scholars@Duke
Leanne Gilbertson

Leanne Gilbertson

Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Civil and Environmental Engineering
leanne.gilbertson@duke.edu
534 Research Dr, Wilkinson Building, Durham, NC 27705

Selected Publications

A mechanistic model for determining factors that influence inorganic nitrogen fate in corn cultivation.

Journal Article Environmental science. Processes & impacts · January 2025 Conventional practices for inorganic nitrogen fertilizer are highly inefficient leading to excess nitrogen in the environment. Excess environmental nitrogen induces ecological (e.g., hypoxia, eutrophication) and public health (e.g., nitrate c ... Full text Cite

Not the Silver Bullet: Uncovering the Unexpected Limited Impacts of Silver-Containing Showerheads on the Drinking Water Microbiome.

Journal Article ACS ES&T water · December 2024 The incidence of waterborne disease outbreaks in the United States attributed to drinking water-associated pathogens that can cause infections in the immunocompromised DWPIs (e.g., Legionella pneumophila, nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), and Ps ... Full text Cite

Leveraging engineered nanomaterials to support material circularity

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · April 29, 2024 Materials are central to a circular economy. They enter one of two cycles, the biological (where materials serve a purpose and then degrade as nutrients for renewing natural resources) or the technical (where materials perpetuate in products, serving a sin ... Full text Cite

Moving beyond silver in point-of-use drinking water pathogen control

Journal Article Environmental Science: Water Research and Technology · February 20, 2024 Managing drinking water-associated pathogens that can cause infections in immunocompromised individuals is a persistent challenge, particularly for healthcare facilities where occupant exposures carry a substantial health risk. Incremental advances in poin ... Full text Cite

Balancing functional properties and environmental impact of graphitic carbon nitride: a case study on boron doping syntheses

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · December 5, 2023 Graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) possesses properties that make it suitable for various applications, including photocatalysis, carbon dioxide reduction, sensing, water-splitting, and nitrogen fixation. To overcome performance limitations arising from limit ... Full text Cite

Acid Treatment in Alkyl-Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes: Soft Functionalization Techniques with Lower Environmental Footprint

Journal Article ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering · October 30, 2023 Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a promising material for sensors and composites, where the addition of chemical functional groups enables selective binding or dispersion. Common functionalization processes often require refluxing in nitric acid (HNO3), resulti ... Full text Cite

Preface

Journal Article ACS Symposium Series · October 2, 2023 Full text Cite

Particle-Driven Effects at the Bacteria Interface: A Nanosilver Investigation of Particle Shape and Dose Metric.

Journal Article ACS applied materials & interfaces · August 2023 Design criteria for controlling engineered nanomaterial (ENM) antimicrobial performance will enable advances in medical, food production, processing and preservation, and water treatment applications. In pursuit of this goal, better resolution of how speci ... Full text Cite

Comparative life cycle assessment of graphitic carbon nitride synthesis routes

Journal Article Journal of Industrial Ecology · June 1, 2023 Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has gained great interest as a visible-light-activated photocatalyst. As an emerging nanomaterial for environmental applications, its competitive performance and environmentally responsible synthesis are critical to its su ... Full text Cite

Thinking in systems: sustainable design of nano-enabled agriculture informed by life cycle assessment

Chapter · January 1, 2023 Food systems are among the most complex systems devised by humankind with multiple stages involved in the production, marketing, and distribution, as well as the preparation and consumption of food. ... Full text Cite

Inspiring a nanocircular economy

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · February 14, 2022 Full text Cite

Assessment of Using Design Thinking to Foster Creativity in an Undergraduate Sustainable Engineering Course

Journal Article Advances in Engineering Education · January 1, 2022 Addressing complex global sustainability challenges requires a creative mindset, yet current engineering curriculum does not facilitate development of student creativity. Design thinking, as defined by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford, is ... Full text Cite

A Classification Model to Identify Direct-Acting Mutagenic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Transformation Products.

Journal Article Chemical research in toxicology · November 2021 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a complex group of environmental contaminants, many having long environmental half-lives. As these compounds degrade, the changes in their structure can result in a substantial increase in mutagenicity compared t ... Full text Cite

Role of bacterial motility in differential resistance mechanisms of silver nanoparticles and silver ions.

Journal Article Nature nanotechnology · September 2021 Unlike conventional antimicrobials, the study of bacterial resistance to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) remains in its infancy and the mechanism(s) through which it evolves are limited and inconclusive. The central question remains whether bacterial resistan ... Full text Cite

Emerging investigator series: a multispecies analysis of the relationship between oxygen content and toxicity in graphene oxide

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · June 1, 2021 The toxicity of graphene oxide (GO) has been documented for multiple species. However, GO has variable surface chemistry, and it is currently unclear whether changes in oxygen content impact GO-organism interactions the same way across species. In this stu ... Full text Cite

Using C-Doping to Identify Photocatalytic Properties of Graphitic Carbon Nitride That Govern Antibacterial Efficacy

Journal Article ACS ES and T Water · February 12, 2021 Graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) is a promising photocatalyst for bacterial disinfection. Herein, carbon doping (C-doping) was employed to manipulate g-C3N4 physicochemical properties and demonstrate a potential avenue toward rationally designing g-C3N4 f ... Full text Cite

Similar toxicity mechanisms between graphene oxide and oxidized multi-walled carbon nanotubes in Microcystis aeruginosa.

Journal Article Chemosphere · February 2021 In photosynthetic microorganisms, the toxicity of carbon nanomaterials (CNMs) is typically characterized by a decrease in growth, viability, photosynthesis, as well as the induction of oxidative stress. However, it is currently unclear how the shape of the ... Full text Cite

Towards resolution of antibacterial mechanisms in metal and metal oxide nanomaterials: a meta-analysis of the influence of study design on mechanistic conclusions

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2021 While the antibacterial potency of metal and metal oxide engineered nanomaterials (MMO ENMs) has been well-established in the literature, the underlying mechanisms of antibacterial activity are regarded by many as uncertain, despite a considerable volume o ... Full text Cite

Unveiling the Synergistic Role of Oxygen Functional Groups in the Graphene-Mediated Oxidation of Glutathione.

Journal Article ACS applied materials & interfaces · October 2020 This is the first report of an atomic-scale direct oxidation mechanism of the thiol group in glutathione (GSH) by epoxides on graphene oxide (GO) at room temperature. The proposed reaction mechanism is determined using a coupled experimental and computatio ... Full text Cite

Network Analysis for Prioritizing Biodegradation Metabolites of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · September 2020 Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a diverse group of environmental contaminants released during the combustion of organic materials and the production and utilization of fossil fuels. Once released, PAHs deposit in soil and water bodies where the ... Full text Cite

Guiding the design space for nanotechnology to advance sustainable crop production.

Journal Article Nature nanotechnology · September 2020 The globally recognized need to advance more sustainable agriculture and food systems has motivated the emergence of transdisciplinary solutions, which include methodologies that utilize the properties of materials at the nanoscale to address extensive and ... Full text Cite

Technology readiness and overcoming barriers to sustainably implement nanotechnology-enabled plant agriculture

Journal Article Nature Food · July 1, 2020 Nanotechnology offers potential solutions for sustainable agriculture, including increasing nutrient utilization efficiency, improving the efficacy of pest management, mitigating the impacts of climate change, and reducing adverse environmental impacts of ... Full text Cite

Sustainability coursework: student perspectives and reflections on design thinking

Journal Article International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education · April 22, 2020 Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess particular student outcomes when design thinking was integrated into an environmental engineering course. The literature is increasingly promoting design thinking for addressing societal and environmental su ... Full text Cite

Graphite nanoparticle addition to fertilizers reduces nitrate leaching in growth of lettuce (: Lactuca sativa)

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2020 Nitrogen leaching into groundwater occurs in nearly all intensively-fertilized agriculture applications and poses growing environmental and human health risks such as eutrophication and drinking water contamination. This potential for contamination will in ... Full text Cite

Structure-Property-Toxicity Relationships of Graphene Oxide: Role of Surface Chemistry on the Mechanisms of Interaction with Bacteria.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · December 2019 Graphene oxide (GO) is an antimicrobial agent with tunable surface chemistry. To identify the physicochemical determinants of GO's antimicrobial activity, we generated different modified Hummer's GO materials thermally annealed at 200, 500, or 800 °C (TGO2 ... Full text Cite

Opportunities and challenges for nanotechnology in the agri-tech revolution.

Journal Article Nature nanotechnology · June 2019 Current agricultural practices, developed during the green revolution, are becoming unsustainable, especially in the face of climate change and growing populations. Nanotechnology will be an important driver for the impending agri-tech revolution that prom ... Full text Cite

Copper release and transformation following natural weathering of nano-enabled pressure-treated lumber.

Journal Article The Science of the total environment · June 2019 Commercially available lumber, pressure-treated with micronized copper azole (MCA), has largely replaced other inorganic biocides for residential wood treatment in the USA, yet little is known about how different outdoor environmental conditions impact the ... Full text Cite

Leveraging electrochemistry to uncover the role of nitrogen in the biological reactivity of nitrogen-doped graphene

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2019 While nitrogen doping greatly broadens graphene applications, relatively little is known about the influence of this heteroatom on the biological activity of graphene. A set of systematically modified nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) materials was synthesized ... Full text Cite

Emerging investigator series: Connecting concepts of coinage metal stability across length scales

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2019 At all length scales, the stability of materials is impacted by their surrounding environment. However, it has now been observed that materials with different dimensions can exhibit markedly different responses to their environment, even for the same mater ... Full text Cite

Life Cycle Impact and Benefit Trade-Offs of a Produced Water and Abandoned Mine Drainage Cotreatment Process.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · December 2018 A cotreatment process for produced water and abandoned mine drainage (AMD) has been established and demonstrated at the pilot-scale. The present study evaluates the potential of the proposed process to aid in management of two high volume wastewater resour ... Full text Cite

Rational Ligand Design to Improve Agrochemical Delivery Efficiency and Advance Agriculture Sustainability

Journal Article ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering · November 5, 2018 The use of agrochemicals - fertilizers and pesticides - in crop production is inefficient, resulting in cascading adverse impacts on the environment and public health. Engineered nanomaterials have the potential to offer innovative solutions for effective, ... Full text Cite

A framework for sustainable nanomaterial selection and design based on performance, hazard, and economic considerations.

Journal Article Nature nanotechnology · August 2018 Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) and ENM-enabled products have emerged as potentially high-performance replacements to conventional materials and chemicals. As such, there is an urgent need to incorporate environmental and human health objectives into ENM s ... Full text Cite

Use of active learning and the design thinking process to drive creative sustainable engineering design solutions

Conference ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings · June 23, 2018 In a Design for the Environment upper-level undergraduate engineering course, the design thinking process for creative problem solving as well as a host of in-class, active-learning design sessions were implemented, with the objective of enhancing the crea ... Cite

Atom Conversion Efficiency: A New Sustainability Metric Applied to Nitrogen and Phosphorus Use in Agriculture

Journal Article ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering · April 2, 2018 Agriculture fertilization suffers from inefficiencies that carry significant environmental and economic consequences. These consequences include high fertilizer production energy demand, on-field greenhouse gas emissions, and eutrophication. Additionally, ... Full text Cite

Emerging investigator series: It's not all about the ion: Support for particle-specific contributions to silver nanoparticle antimicrobial activity

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2018 Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and other ionizing engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are candidates for the development of antimicrobial agents due to their efficacy, multiple modes of bacterial inactivation, and tunability with respect to both the magnitude an ... Full text Cite

Life cycle considerations of nano-enabled agrochemicals: Are today's tools up to the task?

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2018 Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) used as fertilizers, pesticides and growth regulators will involve direct application of large quantities of ENMs to the environment and products intended for human consumption. Assessing their life cycle environmental impac ... Full text Cite

Impacts of broth chemistry on silver ion release, surface chemistry composition, and bacterial cytotoxicity of silver nanoparticles

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2018 Here, we determine the impact of bacterial growth media on silver nanoparticle (diameter = 24.0 ± 3.2 nm) surface chemistry, the relationship of this surface chemistry to silver ion release from these nanoparticles, and ultimately the antimicrobial implica ... Full text Cite

Opportunities to advance sustainable design of nano-enabled agriculture identified through a literature review

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2018 The application of nanotechnology in agriculture and food systems is a new and rapidly evolving area of research with the potential to positively impact an industry that is experiencing increased demand under increasingly stressed resources. Given the inti ... Full text Cite

Methodology for quantifying engineered nanomaterial release from diverse product matrices under outdoor weathering conditions and implications for life cycle assessment

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2017 Accurate measurement of engineered nanomaterial (ENM) release from diverse product lines and matrices during use is critical to evaluating environmental impacts across the life cycle of a nano-enabled product. While indoor accelerated weathering and a hand ... Full text Cite

Informing rational design of graphene oxide through surface chemistry manipulations: Properties governing electrochemical and biological activities

Journal Article Green Chemistry · January 1, 2017 It is increasingly realized that rational design is critical to advance potential applications and proactively preclude adverse consequences of carbon nanomaterials (CNMs). Central to this approach is the establishment of parametric relationships that corr ... Full text Cite

Research highlights: applications of life-cycle assessment as a tool for characterizing environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2017 The upstream and downstream environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are increasingly realized, and have motivated research to advance promising applications while precluding adverse impacts. Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive t ... Full text Cite

Evaluating the use of alternatives assessment to compare bulk organic chemical and nanomaterial alternatives to brominated flame retardants

Journal Article ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering · November 7, 2016 Alternatives assessment (AA) provides a framework for selection of safer substitutes for problematic chemicals. This study assesses alternatives for flame retardants (FR) in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE), including two common brominated FR, dec ... Full text Cite

Shape-Dependent Surface Reactivity and Antimicrobial Activity of Nano-Cupric Oxide.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · April 2016 Shape of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) can be used as a design handle to achieve controlled manipulation of physicochemical properties. This tailored material property approach necessitates the establishment of relationships between specific ENM properti ... Full text Cite

Toward safer multi-walled carbon nanotube design: Establishing a statistical model that relates surface charge and embryonic zebrafish mortality.

Journal Article Nanotoxicology · January 2016 Given the increased utility and lack of consensus regarding carbon nanotube (CNT) environmental and human health hazards, there is a growing demand for guidelines that inform safer CNT design. In this study, the zebrafish (Danio rerio) model is utilized as ... Full text Cite

Enhanced dispersion and electronic performance of single-walled carbon nanotube thin films without surfactant: A comprehensive study of various treatment processes

Journal Article Carbon · August 8, 2015 A method for enhancing electronic performance of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) thin films through enhanced dispersion of SWCNTs in aqueous solutions is presented. The best dispersion enhancement is obtained by covalent attachment of urea to the aci ... Full text Cite

Designing nanomaterials to maximize performance and minimize undesirable implications guided by the Principles of Green Chemistry.

Journal Article Chemical Society reviews · August 2015 The Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry were first published in 1998 and provide a framework that has been adopted not only by chemists, but also by design practitioners and decision-makers (e.g., materials scientists and regulators). The development of t ... Full text Cite

Life Cycle Payback Estimates of Nanosilver Enabled Textiles under Different Silver Loading, Release, And Laundering Scenarios Informed by Literature Review.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · July 2015 Silver was utilized throughout history to prevent the growth of bacteria in food and wounds. Recently, nanoscale silver has been applied to consumer textiles (nAg-textiles) to eliminate the prevalence of odor-causing bacteria. In turn, it is proposed that ... Full text Cite

Coordinating modeling and experimental research of engineered nanomaterials to improve life cycle assessment studies

Journal Article Environmental Science: Nano · January 1, 2015 Life cycle assessment (LCA)-a comprehensive modeling framework used to identify environmental and human health impacts associated with products, processes, and technologies-is increasingly recommended for emerging nanotechnologies. LCA applied prospectivel ... Full text Cite

Highly conductive single-walled carbon nanotube thin film preparation by direct alignment on substrates from water dispersions.

Journal Article Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids · January 2015 A safe, scalable method for producing highly conductive aligned films of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) from water suspensions is presented. While microfluidic assembly of SWNTs has received significant attention, achieving desirable SWNT dispersio ... Full text Cite

Life cycle impacts and benefits of a carbon nanotube-enabled chemical gas sensor.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · October 2014 As for any emerging technology, it is critical to assess potential life cycle impacts prior to widespread adoption to prevent future unintended consequences. The subject of this life cycle study is a carbon nanotube-enabled chemical gas sensor, which is a ... Full text Cite

Toward tailored functional design of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs): electrochemical and antimicrobial activity enhancement via oxidation and selective reduction.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · May 2014 Multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are utilized in a number of sectors as a result of their favorable electronic properties. In addition, MWNT antimicrobial properties can be exploited or considered a potential liability depending on their intended appli ... Full text Cite

Realizing comparable oxidative and cytotoxic potential of single- and multiwalled carbon nanotubes through annealing.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · August 2013 The potential applications as well as the environmental and human health implications of carbon nanomaterials are well represented in the literature. There has been a recent focus on how specific physicochemical properties influence carbon nanotube (CNT) f ... Full text Cite

Impact of surface functionalization on bacterial cytotoxicity of single-walled carbon nanotubes.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · June 2012 The addition of surface functional groups to single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is realized as an opportunity to achieve enhanced functionality in the intended application. At the same time, several functionalized SWNTs (fSWNTs), compared to SWNTs, hav ... Full text Cite