Collaborative Research: EAGER: Interaction of carbon-metal nanohybrids at environmental interfaces

合作研究：EAGER：碳-金属纳米杂化物在环境界面的相互作用

• 批准号: 1602273
• 负责人: Navid Saleh
• 金额: $ 8.01万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-05-15 至 2018-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1602273&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; EAGER; Interaction; carbon

Engineered nanomaterials (NMs) represent a diverse class of extremely small particles ( 100nm) that are being widely used in industrial sectors such as energy, electronics, and sensing. As these applications demanded higher performance, the field of materials research has shifted its focus from using singular NMs (carbon only, metal only) to those comprised of several distinct types of NMs linked together, termed nanohybrids (NHs). Linking single NMs in this capacity is likely to create new properties and behavior in environmental and biological settings that have not yet been predicted or studied. As the scale of NH use rapidly increases there is likely to be significant opportunity for their presence in the aquatic environment. Therefore, the goal of this proposed work is to proactively identify novel and unanticipated properties and associated behavior of carbon-metal NHs that have current relevance to the fuel cell industry. These studies would be the first to investigate whether combining singular NMs to form NHs alters the way they behave in the environment and interact with aquatic organisms. Extracting novel properties by developing ensembles of two or more nano-scale materials is an emerging trend in several industries. However, most of our knowledge regarding nano-environmental behavior is limited to passive nanostructures with singular composition (e.g. carbon, metal). We hypothesize that NHs will display novel unforeseen properties that are highly important in driving their behavior in environmental matrices and organisms. To address this notion we propose to carry out the following aims: (1) synthesize a set of metal-carbon nanotube NHs with high degree of control with the objective of tuning band architecture and material stiffness; (2) characterize physical morphology, mechanical stiffness, band gap, distribution of metal/metal oxides on nanotubes; (3) examine NH interaction with the environmental interfaces by studying particle-particle and particle-collector interaction as well as determining particle dissolution in a wide range of environmental conditions; (4) assess behavior and interaction of NHs at biological interfaces using a well-established aquatic model coupled with high-throughput contemporary measurements of mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. This work is innovative in that it is the first to execute controlled synthesis and characterization of a suite of NHs and component materials that will be investigated in aquatic environments and model organisms (fish). This work is timely in that it will lay the foundation for further research in understanding NHs in complex but relevant environments and reveal novel properties and mechanisms of action in biological systems that have not been studied. The proposed work will generate critical and fundamental knowledge to better understand the environmental interaction of a set of complex hierarchical nanomaterials, metal-carbonaceous NHs. These NHs are highly relevant to the expanding fuel cell industry; therefore, results of this work would directly influence materials science and nano communities and help inform the general public about nano-environmental research. In outreach and education aspects the PIs will recruit undergraduate researchers, including underrepresented students, through several well established programs at UT and UF such as Graduates Linked with Undergraduates in Engineering (GLUE) program, Texas Research Experience (TREX) program, Florida-Georgia Alliance for Minority Participation (FGAMP-SEAGEP) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science for Life programs to recruit minority students.

工程纳米材料 (NM) 代表多种极小颗粒 (100 nm)，广泛应用于能源、电子和传感等工业领域。 由于这些应用需要更高的性能，材料研究领域已将其重点从使用单一 NM（仅碳、仅金属）转移到由几种不同类型的 NM 连接在一起组成的材料，称为纳米杂化物 (NH)。以这种能力连接单个 NM 可能会在环境和生物环境中创造尚未预测或研究的新特性和行为。随着 NH 使用规模的迅速增加，它们在水生环境中的存在可能有很大的机会。因此，这项工作的目标是主动识别目前与燃料电池行业相关的碳金属NH的新颖和意想不到的特性和相关行为。这些研究将首次调查将单一 NM 组合形成 NH 是否会改变它们在环境中的行为方式以及与水生生物的相互作用。通过开发两种或多种纳米级材料的组合来提取新特性是多个行业的新兴趋势。然而，我们关于纳米环境行为的大部分知识仅限于具有单一成分（例如碳、金属）的被动纳米结构。我们假设 NH 将表现出新的不可预见的特性，这些特性对于驱动它们在环境基质和生物体中的行为非常重要。为了解决这个问题，我们建议实现以下目标：（1）合成一组高度可控的金属-碳纳米管NH，以调节能带结构和材料刚度为目标； (2)表征纳米管上金属/金属氧化物的物理形态、机械刚度、带隙、分布； (3) 通过研究颗粒-颗粒和颗粒-收集器相互作用以及确定各种环境条件下的颗粒溶解来检查 NH 与环境界面的相互作用； (4) 使用成熟的水生模型结合线粒体功能障碍和氧化应激的高通量当代测量来评估 NH 在生物界面上的行为和相互作用。这项工作的创新之处在于，它是第一个对一系列 NH 和组分材料进行受控合成和表征的工作，这些材料将在水生环境和模式生物（鱼类）中进行研究。这项工作是及时的，因为它将为进一步研究了解复杂但相关环境中的 NH 奠定基础，并揭示生物系统中尚未研究的新特性和作用机制。拟议的工作将产生关键和基础知识，以更好地理解一组复杂的分层纳米材料、金属-碳质 NH 的环境相互作用。 这些NH与不断扩大的燃料电池行业高度相关；因此，这项工作的结果将直接影响材料科学和纳米界，并有助于向公众宣传纳米环境研究。在外展和教育方面，PI 将通过 UT 和 UF 的几个完善的项目招募本科生研究人员，包括代表性不足的学生，例如工程本科生链接项目 (GLUE)、德克萨斯州研究经验 (TREX) 项目、佛罗里达州-佐治亚州联盟少数族裔参与计划 (FGAMP-SEAGEP) 和霍华德休斯医学院 (HHMI) 生命科学计划招募少数族裔学生。