I-Corps: Multi-Element Scanning Thermal Analysis (MESTA) Technology for Industry, Academic Research and Other Applications

I-Corps：用于工业、学术研究和其他应用的多元素扫描热分析 (MESTA) 技术

• 批准号: 1530573
• 负责人: Yuch-Ping Hsieh
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-04-15 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1530573&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Multi; Element; Scanning; Thermal

Holistic chemical analysis of heterogeneous solid samples in complex matrixes such as aerosols, soils and sediments is very desirable in research and industry applications but difficult due to the limited available separation technology. Currently, academic researchers analyze their heterogeneous mixture of solids using sophisticated methods such as the solid state NMR, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) to identify the forms of the Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N) and Sulfur (S) compounds. Those sophisticated methods are costly and not available to most researchers. Most researchers would settle their analytical needs by analyzing their sample with an elemental analyzer, which provides only the bulk C, N and S concentrations and little information about the chemical nature of the compounds. This team has developed the Multi-Element Scanning Thermal Analysis (MESTA) technology to solve this problem and successfully applied it to the direct analysis of aerosols with sensitivity, precision and accuracy.The proposed technology, MESTA can characterize the thermochemical properties of compounds, in terms of their quantitative C, N, S and H thermograms, in a wide range of samples with no or little requirement of pretreatment. This relatively simple and novel technology fills a significant gap in the holistic (non-partial) chemical analysis of heterogeneous samples that are often encountered in industrial and academic research applications. For example, MESTA can quickly and cost-effectively determine the quantity and quality of petroleum end products from a crude oil sample and assess their polluting impurities to the environment (contents and forms of S and N compounds) in each product. MESTA can simplify the analysis of many solid environmental samples necessary for academic research of geo, soil and environmental sciences. It can do routine analysis of industrial samples for quality control and assurance. It is valuable in foods and food products quality control and inspection, in homeland security substance identification and characterization.

在研究和工业应用中，对诸如气溶胶、土壤和沉积物的复杂基质中的非均质固体样品进行整体化学分析是非常期望的，但由于可用的分离技术有限而困难。目前，学术研究人员使用诸如固态NMR、X射线光电子能谱（XPS）和X射线吸收近边结构（XANES）等复杂方法来分析它们的非均质固体混合物，以识别碳（C）、氮（N）和硫（S）化合物的形式。这些复杂的方法成本高昂，大多数研究人员无法获得。大多数研究人员将通过使用元素分析仪分析样品来解决他们的分析需求，元素分析仪仅提供大量的C，N和S浓度，并且几乎没有关于化合物化学性质的信息。该团队开发了多元素扫描热分析（MESTA）技术来解决这一问题，并成功地将其应用于气溶胶的直接分析，具有灵敏度，精密度和准确度。所提出的技术，MESTA可以在不需要或很少需要预处理的情况下，通过定量C，N，S和H热谱图来表征化合物的热化学性质。这种相对简单和新颖的技术填补了在工业和学术研究应用中经常遇到的异质样品的整体（非部分）化学分析的重大空白。例如，MESTA可以快速和经济有效地确定原油样品中石油最终产品的数量和质量，并评估每种产品中对环境的污染杂质（S和N化合物的含量和形式）。MESTA可以简化地质、土壤和环境科学学术研究所需的许多固体环境样品的分析。它可以对工业样品进行常规分析，以进行质量控制和保证。它在食品和食品产品的质量控制和检验，在国土安全物质鉴定和表征方面具有重要价值。