银纳米粒子将防治真菌病害（在线收听）

银纳米粒子将防治真菌病害

Large farms use various chemicals to fight fungi and bacteria that attack crops, and others such as e. coli that are harmful to humans.

大规模农作物产地都会使用化学产品来抵御损害农作物的真菌和细菌，例如像大肠杆菌这些对身体有害的真菌。

Among the most potent elements of modern pesticides and even some antibiotics are silver-based nanoparticles, which attach to microbes and destroy them. But as those nanoparticles degrade, they release the silver from their metallic core, which may be harmful.

当今，绝大多数杀虫剂，甚至是许多抗生素都含有银纳米颗粒，这些颗粒能够附着在细菌上，并将其摧毁。但是随着纳米粒子的不断降解，它们会从金属磁芯中释放有害的银离子。

“The effects are not, potentially maybe not so good for environment or human ingestion, so the problem is how do you potentially remove that danger from engineered nanomaterials,”

这种影响很有可能对环境和人类吸收系统不利，所以问题是我们如何从纳米材料中将危险因素隔离，”

Velev and Ph.D. student Alexander Richter discovered that silver-based nanoparticles can be replaced with non-harmful nanoparticles based on an organic polymer called lignin, naturally found in most plants.

韦列夫和博士生亚历山大·里希特发现银纳米颗粒可以被无害的纳米粒子所代替，它是一种名叫木质素的有机高分子，绝大多数植物中都能够发现这种物质。

Such nanoparticles, designated as EbNPs, also carry highly active silver ions that attach to and kill bacteria, but their core is biodegradable and not harmful to the environment.

这种纳米粒子被叫作木质芯纳米颗粒，它也含有活跃的银离子，并附着在真菌上并将其杀死，但是这种木质芯能够生物降解，并对环境无害。

“By doing so, we could actually make the nanoparticles keep their functionality but make them degradable while also reducing the amount of the silver core in the nanoparticle system,”

通过这种方法，我们既可以让纳米粒子发挥功效，也可以实现可降解，与此同时减少纳米颗粒中的银芯数量。

Based on their research, Velev and Richter founded a start-up company that will continue developing the method for industrial-grade production.

根据这项研究，韦列夫和里希特成立了公司，并将继续开发工业级产品。

“We believe that this can lead to a new generation of agricultural treatment products, that they're going to be more efficient, that they're going to use less chemicals, and that they're going to be more friendly toward the environment,”

我们相信这将生产出新一代的农业处理产品，这些产品将更加有效，减少对化学产品的使用，并更加有益于环境。

They say their biodegradable nanoparticles could also be used in consumer products such as disinfectants and personal hygiene items.

他们称他们的生物可降解纳米颗粒也可以使用在例如消毒剂以及个人卫生产品等消费品当中。