Profile: Stuart Linley’s Research Tackles Toxic Water Contaminants

Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Cleaning up contaminated water from Canada’s oil sands is a contentious problem. While the toxic wastewater left over from the production process is contained in tailings ponds, the mixture of water, sand, clay and residual oil is highly toxic and poses a significant ecological threat. Add to this the quantity—and you have an enormous environmental problem.
This is exactly the kind of problem that Stuart Linley wants to solve. Linley, a nanotechnology engineer, is working on how to safely remove naphthenic acids, one of the most scientifically challenging contaminants in wastewater.

Stuart Linley conducting part of experiment

Naphthenic acids, the primary contaminant, are very toxic and difficult to remove. The nanocomposites ​I’m working on could provide a solution that is easy to deploy, fast acting and easy to recover. Myprimary goal is to see the technology that I’m developing resolve a real world problem.—Stuart Linley,ԲԴdzٱ𳦳ԴDZDzԲԱԲ’14graduate and doctoral candidate

Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship

Linley's research is getting noticed. He was recently awarded the prestigiousthat provides $150,000 of research funding fromover three years. Linley says his mentor, Professor FrankGu, Canada Research Chair inNanotechnologyEngineering, influenced his decision tostay at ݮƵ and continue his post-graduate studies.

“Stuart is an outstanding student,"says Gu. “I'm so glad he chose ݮƵ to conduct his doctoral research.”

The admiration is mutual. “Frank is open to new ideas and he fosters experimentation. He gave me the opportunity to run my own project,” says Linley.“He has guided my research and he pushed me to apply for the Vanier DZ󾱱.”

Stuart Linley

The co-op experience at ݮƵ enabled me to work closely with Frank Gu and spend hours in the lab. ݮƵ has excellent facilities, nowhere better in Canada. By being here I can draw information and expertise from research experts focused on water analysis, water treatment and nanomaterials design. With the overlap of these disciplines at ݮƵ we are uniquely positioned to tackle this (wastewater) problem. —StuartLinley,ԲԴdzٱ𳦳ԴDZDzԲԱԲ’14graduate and doctoral candidate

More research and maybe entrepreneurship

While wastewater in tailings ponds is a major ecological problem, the municipal water system is also facing problems including contaminants from pharmaceuticals, sweeteners, birth control drugs and caffeine, which cannot be removed by conventional treatment. Linley's nanotechnology research could help solve this wastewater contamination problem.

Once he has completed his PhD, Linley wants to pursue real world implementation of his research through a business venture. One of his ideas — create a mobile purification unit that can be placed into any water system, anywhere in the world, to treat the new class of contaminants.

Colourized image of iron oxide nanoparticles that form the basis of the magnetic separation technology being investigated in Prof. ҳ’s lab. Image credits: Stuart Linley, Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy

Magnetically recoverablenanoparticles(colourized) that are being developed inProf.ҳ’slab to treat water. Image credits: StuartLinley, Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy.

Published

Linley’srecent paper“”was the subject of an article published by the American Ceramic Society,.

StuartLinley,YingYingLiu, Carol J.Ptacek, David W.Blowes, and Frank X.Gu, “”ACSApplied Materials and Interfaces,2014,6(7), 4658–4668

StuartLinley, TimothyLeshuk, FrankGu, "Synthesis of hollow magnetic core-shell rattle-typenanostructuresfor use in water treatment",ACSApplied Materials and Interfaces, 2013, 5(7), 2540–2548

TimothyLeshuk, StuartLinley, FrankGu, "Hydrogenation processing ofTiO2nanoparticles", The Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2013, 91(5), 799–807

TimothyLeshuk, StuartLinley, George Baxter, FrankGu, "MesoporousHollow Sphere Titanium DioxidePhotocatalyststhroughHydrothermalSilica Etching",ACSApplied Materials and Interfaces, 2012, 4(11), 6062-6070