Collaborative Research: A Nanostructure Sensor for Measuring Dissolved Iron and Copper Concentrations in Coastal and Offshore Seawater

铁和铜是多种生物系统中许多酶的关键共同成分，它们在水系统中的含量升高或减少，对生物体、生态系统和人类健康产生巨大影响。在过去十年中，人们日益认识到这些影响在海洋系统中的重要性。确定这些金属造成负面环境后果的地点和时间受到其相对稀疏的数据集的极大阻碍。这个问题是在非常低（痕量）浓度的盐水沃茨中获得准确的铁和铜测定的分析挑战以及依赖于船舶的采样制度的局限性的直接后果。私家侦探？在Tripp、威尔斯和King实验室的研究和技术进步的基础上，开发活性纳米结构，可以作为检测海水中广泛的环境重要溶解金属的平台。初步工作已经验证了在亚北极N.太平洋，提供了第一个演示溶解铁测量非常低（50 pM）浓度的海洋沃茨的固态传感器。拟议的工作将：1）通过调整活性纳米结构来优化这种原型传感器，以测量溶解的Fe和Cu; 2）开发一种检测设备，将当前的船载方法迁移到玫瑰花形轮廓平台以及系泊和自动驾驶车辆上。 更广泛的影响：该项目有可能进一步开发一种传感器，提供有关生物重要金属铁和铜的化学形态的独特信息。这里提出的工作填补了海洋化学和海洋地球化学研究人员确定为优先事项的这些金属的高空间和时间分辨率数据的重要需求。这种跨学科的方法有可能填补数据分析的空白，这些数据继续阻碍人们了解海洋中铜和更具体地说铁的可用性如何调节海洋环境中碳和氮的循环。该提案在将纳米技术与红外光谱学相结合以解决分析空白的目标中得到了很好的平衡，同时为本科生和研究生水平的学生培训提供了具体的支持。PI计划发展少数民族学生参与他们的研究。这将产生最重要的影响，因为将聪明的学生带入我们的领域并激励年轻学生考虑科学事业对于我们国家科学能力的持续增长至关重要。

Iron and Copper serve as key co-constituents for numerous enzymes in a wide range of biological systems, and their elevated or impoverished levels in aqueous systems have dramatic consequences at organismal, ecosystem, and human health scales. Over the last decade these effects have increasingly been recognized to be important in ocean systems. Identifying sites and times where these metals cause negative environmental outcomes is greatly hampered by their comparatively sparse datasets. This problem is a direct consequence of the analytical challenge of obtaining accurate Fe and Cu determinations in saline waters at very low (trace) concentrations, and the limitations of ship-dependent sampling regimes. The PI?s request funding to build on research and technology advances in the Tripp, Wells and King laboratories to develop active nanostructures that can serve as platforms amenable for detection of a wide range of environmentally important dissolved metals in seawater. Preliminary work has validated a biologically-inspired sensor platform in the subarctic N. Pacific, providing the first demonstration of dissolved Fe measurements at very low (50 pM) concentrations in oceanic waters by a solid state sensor. The proposed work will 1) optimize this prototype sensor by tuning the active nanostructures to measure dissolved Fe and Cu, and 2) develop a detection device that migrates the current ship-board method to operate on rosette profiling platforms as well as on moorings and autonomous vehicles. Broader Impacts:This project has the potential to further develop a sensor that will provide unique information about the chemical speciation of the biologically important metals Fe and Cu. The work proposed here fills an important need for high spatial and temporal resolution data of these metals identified as priority by researchers in marine chemistry and marine biogeochemistry. This interdisciplinary approach has the potential to fill an analytical void for data that continues to stymie efforts to understand how and Cu and more specifically Fe availability in the oceans modulates the cycling of carbon and nitrogen in the marine environment. The proposal is well balanced in its goal of marrying nanotechnology with IR spectroscopy to address a analytical void while providing specific support for the training of students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The PIs plan to develop minority student involvement in their research. This will have the most important impact, since bringing smart students into our field and stimulating young students to consider careers in science is essential for the continued growth of our national science capabilities.