Professor Lupita Montoya (left) and Aaron Lamplugh, PhD candidate (right).
The Nature, Environment, Science and Technology (NEST) Studio for the Arts awarded graduate student fellowships to nine pairs of artists and scientists who worked on collaborative, cross-disciplinary projects during Summer 2018. Camila Friedman-Gerlicz, an MFA candidate in Art and Art History, and Aaron Lamplugh, a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering advised by Prof. Lupita Montoya, received one of three full NEST fellowships. Their team project involved incorporating porous materials such as activated carbon and biochar into plaster surfaces to create simple and elegant air-cleaning art pieces that can be used in nail salons and other toxic indoor environments. A representative art piece is on display at the EMBRYONIC exhibition, which takes place from September 21st to December 21st in the west wing of the new CASE Building.
The goal of Aaron’s project is to incorporate adsorbent materials capable of removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), into a functional and aesthetic system that could be installed in nail salons. Adam Nguyen, an undergraduate student in Architectural Engineering, also took part in the project.
This system works passively, through diffusion, as concentrations of VOCs build up in the surrounding air. It is also quiet and relatively easy to maintain. The material used in the piece can be regenerated through heating; however, testing is still needed to evaluate the long-term efficiency loss from thermally cycling the materials. The Montoya Lab is also testing the materials in active flow scenarios, using low-energy, synthetic jets to enhance VOC removal (see figure below). Their latest results show significant increases in removal rates when active flow is added to the system.
In a period of over 10 years, this research has involved 2 MS theses in Mechanical Engineering, 2 MS theses in Architectural Engineering, one MS thesis in Environmental Engineering, one MFA in Art and Art History, one PhD in Architecture and one PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Field testing of this system in local nail salons is scheduled to begin this Fall.
Students Involved:
- Jennifer Ziegler, MSME, 2007, RPI
- Michael Allard, MSME, 2011, RPI
- Ahu Aydogan, PhD Architecture, 2012, RPI
- Brett McQuillan, MS Architectural Engineering, 2013, CU
- Anne Wrobetz, MS Environmental Engineering, 2015, CU
- Denise Mauney, MS Architectural Engineering, 2016, CU
- Aaron Lamplugh, PhD Mechanical Engineering, 2019, CU
Results from VOC removal experiments with and without active flow