Environmental Remediation Through Self-Assembly and Applications to Environmental Sensor Development

杜兰大学的John， Vijay t .“通过自组装和应用于环境传感器开发的环境修复”本研究的目的是开发一种含芳香族化合物的水流环境修复工艺。这一过程涉及将知名技术与新科学相结合。表面活性剂胶束将首先用于在水溶液中浓缩有机污染物（通常是酚类和芳香胺），这是一种经过充分研究的胶束增强超滤技术（MEUF）。下一步将是利用诸如辣根过氧化物酶等氧化酶在胶束内聚合这些污染物。由此产生的共轭聚合物本身在涂层技术和电光学应用中非常有用。第三步是将胶束聚合物组装包封在介孔二氧化硅（和二氧化钛）的孔隙结构中。这将产生有用的聚合物-陶瓷纳米复合材料，其中封装材料的功能可用于开发光致发光的坚固传感器材料。通过这种途径对酶的封装也将在新型化学生物传感器的开发中得到评价。更广泛的影响将为本科生和研究生提供优秀的跨学科培训。学生将接触到的光谱学、显微镜学和散射技术的结合，将是宝贵的研究经验。杜兰大学拥有独特的协调仪器设施，集中的仪器和专业知识可以为学生提供出色的培训。PI完全致力于提供教育机会，并且在实现这一目标方面有着良好的记录，例如路易斯安那州少数民族参与研究联盟（LAMP）。这项研究是杜兰大学一项合作的延续，该合作已经培养了几名博士研究生，并为10多名学生提供了本科研究经验。从技术角度来看，探索性研究阶段将评估将环境污染物转化为有用的高价值产品的可行性。在介孔二氧化硅中包封酶的过程将被用于包封磷酸三酯酶。这种含有二氧化硅的酶薄膜将被用于开发一种传感器，用于检测神经毒剂替代品，如对氧磷。

John, Vijay T.Tulane University"Environmental Remediation through Self-Assembly and Applications to Environmental Sensor Development"The objective of this research is to develop a process for environmental remediation of aqueous streams containing aromatic compounds. The process involves incorporating well-known technologies with new science. Surfactant micelles will be first used to concentrate organic contaminants (typically phenols and aromatic amines) in aqueous streams, in a version of the well-studied micellar enhanced ultrafiltration technology (MEUF). The next step will be to polymerize these contaminants within the micelles using oxidative enzymes such as horseradish peroxidase. The resulting conjugated polymers are themselves very useful in coatings technologies, and in applications to electrooptics. The third step is to encapsulate the micelle-polymer assembly within the pore structure of mesoporous silicas (and titanias). This will result in useful polymer-ceramic nanocomposites where functionality of the encapsulated materials can be utilized to develop robust sensor materials that are photoluminescent. The encapsulation of enzymes through this route will also be evaluated in the development of novel chemo-biosensors.Broader impacts Excellent interdisciplinary training for both undergraduates and graduate students will be provided. The combination of spectroscopy, microscopy and scattering techniques that the students will be exposed to, will be an invaluable research experience. Tulane University operates a unique Coordinated Instrumentation Facility where centralized instrumentation and expertise allow excellent student training. The PI's are fully committed to providing educational opportunities, and have a strong record of working towards such objectives with formalized programs such as the Louisiana Alliance for Minority Participation in Research (LAMP). The research is the continuation of a collaboration at Tulane that has produced several Ph.D. graduates and has provided undergraduate research experience to over 10 students. From a technical prospective, the exploratory research phase will evaluate the feasibility of transforming environmental contaminants to useful, high value products. The process of enzyme entrapment in mesoporous silicas will be used to encapsulate phosphotriesterase. Thin films of such enzyme containing silicas will be used to develop a sensor for the detection of nerve agent surrogates such as paraoxon.