2025 AIChE Annual Meeting

Pop, Fizz, and Fluorescence: Using Nanoparticles in Your Soda to Inspire Next-Gen Scientists

Critical to modern everyday life, nanotechnology is behind key advancements from food to laptop batteries. However, according to multiple studies, the public generally holds an ambivalent view of the field and lacks factual familiarity. Moreover, conventional efforts to increase understanding do not strongly correlate with increased support or a decisively positive outlook. Rather, investigations have found that general institutional trust and the level of technology optimism are more closely related to acceptance. This work explores a novel, family-oriented activity that is safe, inexpensive, and easy to set up—designed to engage future scientists and increase institutional trust/optimism in parents/guardians. While focusing on nanomaterials, the activity touches on core chemical engineering topics such as material characterization, separations/purification, and process control. The activity involves extracting fluorescent nanoparticles already present in some soft drinks, such as Colas, and using UV light to elicit a faint blue glow. The activity is designed for children aged 10–18 and can be easily adapted, such as into a multi-team competition or a classroom demonstration. Informally collected feedback from adult and children participants has indicated an overwhelmingly positive response and frequently evoked conversations that helped to increase support and awareness of nanotechnology. Future work will involve implementing this activity into a formal educational study to determine participants’ perceptions and intellectual understanding before and after the demonstration.

Figure Caption: (A) Graphical overview of activity that is included within handouts. (B) Pseudo long-exposure photo of particles fluorescing within extracted solution (left) and water control (right) under UV light.