CAREER: Piezoelectric Mechanocatalytic Destruction of PFAS in Solid Matrices at Ambient Conditions: An Integrated Research and Education Plan

职业：环境条件下固体基质中 PFAS 的压电机械催化破坏：综合研究和教育计划

• 批准号: 2237080
• 负责人: Yang Yang
• 金额: $ 55万
• 依托单位: Clarkson University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-05-01 至 2028-04-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2237080&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Piezoelectric; Mechanocatalytic; Destruction; PFAS

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals that have been manufactured and used in numerous consumer products and industrial applications since the 1940s. PFAS are among the most stable chemicals ever produced. During the last two decades, increasing detection of PFAS in various environmental media has raised significant concerns about their persistence, stability, and adverse impact including toxicity to living organisms and humans. With the gradual phase-out of PFAS from consumer and industrial products, stocks of obsolete PFAS chemicals are becoming solid wastes. In addition, large quantities of PFAS solid wastes are increasingly being generated including wastewater sludge, contaminated soils, and spent granular activated carbon (GAC) and ion exchange (IX) media used to remove PFAS from contaminated drinking water sources. Currently, thermal processes such as incineration and pyrolysis have emerged as the most effective for treating and destroying PFAS laden solid wastes at industrial and commercial scales. However, PFAS thermal treatment processes require high temperatures (150-900 °C) and often generate gaseous streams containing toxic intermediates and products of incomplete combustion (PICs) that require additional treatment to mitigate their releases into the environment. The overarching goal of this CAREER project is to lay the foundation for the development and validation of a novel piezoelectric material (PZM)-assisted ball milling (BM) process capable of treating and destroying PFAS solid wastes at room temperature and ambient pressure. To advance this goal, the Principal Investigator proposes to explore the activation of mixtures of catalytic piezoelectric materials (PZMs) and PFAS chemicals/solid wastes using a BM reactor to generate high electric potentials to decompose and mineralize PFAS into benign inorganic products. The successful completion of this project will benefit society through the generation of new fundamental knowledge and the design and synthesis of reactive PZMs to advance the development of more effective and sustainable technologies for the treatment and destruction of PFAS solid wastes. Additional benefits to society will be achieved through student education and training including the mentoring of one graduate student and one undergraduate student at Clarkson University.PFAS solid wastes are pervasive in the environment. They include obsolete PFAS chemicals, manufacturing wastes, contaminated soils, municipal solid wastes, and spent granular activated (GAC) and ion exchange (IX) media used to remove PFAS from contaminated drinking water sources. The overarching goal of this CAREER project is to advance the development of an innovative mechanochemical process that could treat and convert PFAS solid wastes to benign products at ambient temperature and pressure. The core guiding hypothesis of the proposed research is that the collisions between steel balls and catalytic piezoelectric materials (PZMs) in a ball milling (BM) reactor loaded with PFAS solid compounds/wastes can generate transient high electric potentials to degrade and destroy the PFAS. The specific objectives of the research are to (1) optimize the BM collision energy required to carry out the PFAS mechanochemical degradation process, (2) maximize the reactivity and catalytic activity of the PZMs via rationale design of crystal structure and heterojunctions, (3) use advanced in-situ and ex-situ characterization tools to probe and unravel the mechanisms and pathways of PFAS degradation, and (4) evaluate the cost-effectiveness of a PZM assisted BM process in the treatment and destruction of PFAS solid wastes. The successful completion of this project has the potential for transformative impact through the generation of new fundamental knowledge to advance the design and demonstration of a PZM-assisted ball milling (BM) process and reactor for the treatment and remediation of PFAS solid wastes at room and ambient pressure. To implement the educational and training goals of this CAREER project, the Principal Investigator (PI) proposes to leverage established programs at Clarkson University to (i) engage and mentor undergraduate students to work on the project research activities, (ii) promote K-12 STEM literacy, and (iii) provide PFAS related workforce training. To promote STEM literacy for K-12 students, the PI proposes to develop and deliver science courses and hands-on laboratory exercises based on the project research activities. In addition, the PI plans to collaborate with the accredited PFAS analysis center at Clarkson University to prepare training materials and host virtual seminars in PFAS analysis and treatment for the environmental remediation workforce.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

自1940年代以来，每种和多氟烷基物质（PFA）是合成化学物质，并在众多消费产品和工业应用中生产和使用。 PFA是有史以来最稳定的化学物质之一。在过去的二十年中，在各种环境媒体中对PFA的发现增加引起了人们对它们的持久性，稳定性和不利影响的重大关注，包括对生物体和人类的毒性。随着消费者和工业产品的PFA逐渐逐步淘汰，过时的PFAS化学物质的库存正成为固体废物。此外，越来越多地生成大量的PFAS固体废物，包括废水污泥，被污染的土壤以及用来的颗粒活性碳（GAC）和离子交换（IX）培养基（IX）介质，用于从污染的饮用水源中去除PFA。当前，感染和热解等热过程已成为处理和破坏工业和商业尺度上LADEN固体废物的最有效的过程。但是，PFAS热处理过程需要高温（150-900°C），并且通常会产生含有有毒中间体和不完整组合（PICS）产物的气体流，这些中间体（PICS）需要额外的处理以减轻其释放到环境中。该职业项目的总体目标是为一种新型压电材料（PZM）辅助球铣削（BM）工艺奠定基础，能够治疗和破坏在室温和环境压力下的PFAS固体废物。为了促进这一目标，首席研究员的建议探讨了使用BM反应器的催化压电材料（PZMS）和PFAS化学物质/固体废物混合的激活，以产生高电位，以产生高电位，以分解和矿物质PFA为良性无机产品。该项目的成功完成将通过产生新的基本知识以及反应性PZM的设计和综合，从而促进更有效，更可持续的技术来治疗和破坏PFAS固体废物，从而使社会受益。将通过学生的教育和培训来实现社会的其他好处，包括在克拉克森大学的一名研究生和一名本科生的心理。 The overarching goal of this CAREER project is to advance the development of an innovative mechanochemical process that could treat and convert PFAS solid wastes to benign products at ambient The core guiding hypothesis of the proposed research is that the collisions between steel balls and catalytic piezoelectric materials (PZMs) in a ball milling (BM) reactor loaded with PFAS solid compounds/wastes can generate transient high electric potentials to degrade并摧毁PFA。 The specific objectives of the research are to (1) optimize the BM collision energy required to carry out the PFAS mechanochemical degradation process, (2) maximize The reactivity and catalytic activity of the PZMs via rationale design of crystal structure and heterojunctions, (3) use advanced in-situ and ex-situ characterization tools to probe and unravel the mechanisms and pathways of PFAS degradation, and (4)评估PZM辅助BM工艺在治疗和破坏PFAS固体废物方面的成本效益。该项目的成功完成通过产生新的基本知识，可以推动PZM辅助球铣削（BM）过程（BM）过程和反应堆的设计和演示，以在房间和环境压力下进行PFAS固体废物的处理和修复。为了实施该职业项目的教育和培训目标，首席研究员（PI）提案要利用克拉克森大学既定的计划，以（i）聘用和心理本科生从事项目研究活动，（ii）促进K-12 STEM识字率，（iii）（iii）为PFAS提供了相关的劳动力培训。为了促进K-12学生的STEM识字率，PI提出的提案旨在根据项目研究活动开发和提供科学课程和动手实验室练习。此外，PI计划与克拉克森大学认可的PFAS分析中心合作，准备培训材料，并在PFAS分析和治疗环境补救工作人员的治疗中准备培训材料。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响来评估的珍贵的支​​持。