Ultrasound and sonochemistry enhance education outcomes: From fundamentals and applied research to entrepreneurial potential.

Publisher: Elsevier Science Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 9433356 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1873-2828 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 13504177 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Ultrason Sonochem Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: Amsterdam : Elsevier Science
Original Publication: Oxford : Butterworth Heinemann, c1994-

Ultrasonography* ; Education*

With this manuscript we aim to initiate a discussion specific to educational actions around ultrasonics sonochemistry. The importance of these actions does not just derive from a mere pedagogical significance, but they can be an exceptional tool for illustrating various concepts in other disciplines, such as process intensification and microfluidics. Sonochemistry is currently a far-reaching discipline extending across different scales of applicability, from the fundamental physics of tiny bubbles and molecules, up to process plants. This review is part of a special issue in Ultrasonics Sonochemistry, where several scholars have shared their experiences and highlighted opportunities regarding ultrasound as an education tool. The main outcome of our work is that teaching and mentorship in sonochemistry are highly needed, with a balanced technical and scientific knowledge to foster skills and implement safe protocols. Applied research typically features the use of ultrasound as ancillary, to merely enhance a given process and often leading to poorly conceived experiments and misunderstanding of the actual effects. Thus, our scientific community must build a consistent culture and monitor reproducible practices to rigorously generate new knowledge on sonochemistry. These practices can be implemented in teaching sonochemistry in classrooms and research laboratories. We highlight ways to collectively provide a potentially better training for scientists, invigorating academic and industry-oriented careers. A salient benefit for education efforts is that sonochemistry-based projects can serve multidisciplinary training, potentially gathering students from different disciplines, such as physics, chemistry and bioengineering. Herein, we discuss challenges, opportunities, and future avenues to assist in designing courses and research programs based on sonochemistry. Additionally, we suggest simple experiments suitable for teaching basic physicochemical principles at the undergraduatelevel. We also provide arguments and recommendations oriented towards graduate and postdoctoral students, in academia or industry to be more entrepreneurial. We have identified that sonochemistry is consistently seen as a 'green' or sustainable tool, which particular appeal to process intensification approaches, including microfluidics and materials science. We conclude that a globally aligned pedagogical initiative and constantly updated educational tools will help to sustain a virtuous cycle in STEM and industrial applications of sonochemistry.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: David Fernandez Rivas reports a relationship with BuBclean that includes: board membership and equity or stocks. D.F.R. is a founder and a scientific advisor of BuBclean, a Dutch start-up company that commercializes the BuBble Bags (Cavitation Intensifying Bags - CIB) and operates in the ultrasonic cleaning solutions market. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Keywords: Chemical engineering; Cognitive models; Educational tools; Entrepreneurial education; Process intensification; Scale-up; Sonochemistry

Date Created: 20240215 Date Completed: 20240228 Latest Revision: 20240423

20240424

PMC10879001

10.1016/j.ultsonch.2024.106795

38359576