MRI: Acquisition of instrumentation to advance our understanding of environmental processes through characterization of the organic compounds in different environmental reservoirs

该项目将购买一种现成的仪器，该仪器具有前所未有的能力来分离复杂基质中的单个分子，并更准确地获取它们的组成(通过精确的质量测量)。将在本研究中研究的环境基质和将用于降低相关样品的自然复杂性的创新样品处理方法代表了该仪器的新应用。将创造的新知识的例子包括更好地了解污染物在环境中是如何转化的，微生物如何通过交流调节水华动力学，以及已知的生物化学物质如何转化为可以在长时间尺度上保存的分子，从而有助于氧气的生产和二氧化碳的封存。对这些过程的这种分子水平的了解对于确定调节它们的环境因素以及这些过程未来可能如何反应至关重要。利用该仪器产生的数据将作为质谱库公开使用，该库将用于其他领域，包括药物发现、石油研究和代谢组学。此外，几名研究生和博士后研究人员将获得对该仪器的实际操作，提供宝贵的培训，为他们在学术界和工业中的职业生涯做好准备。该项目将获得一台与飞马HRT(高分辨率飞行时间)质谱仪(MS)耦合的综合气相色谱仪(GC×GC)，该仪器最初将用于检查水环境中积累的有机分子的多样性，并识别积累在各种环境基质中的化学污染物的降解产物。有机地球化学和环境化学必然涉及复杂的基质，其中来自各种来源的数千到数百万种化合物在非生物和生物过程的作用下，在短到千年(或更长)的时间尺度上积累。这些化合物的化学结构携带着关于来源、转化机制和停留时间的关键信息。获得先进的分析仪器继续增加对这类信息的获取。全面的气相色谱，加上识别仪器的高扫描速度(每秒200个全质量范围质谱图)提供的高级质量去卷积，实现了前所未有的？分离？有机分子的复杂混合物。此外，低于ppm的质量准确度大大提高了识别未知化合物的可能性。这两个特点结合在一起，使这款乐器独一无二。关于塑造各种环境储集层化学成分的过程的知识，将随着这些复杂样品可以被化学描述的程度而扩大。因此，全面表征这类样品的化学成分会带来巨大的回报。

This project will purchase an off-the-shelf instrument that has an unprecedented capability to separate individual molecules found in complex matrices and more precisely access their composition (through accurate measurement of mass). The environmental matrices that will be studied in this research and the innovative sample processing methods that will be employed to reduce the natural complexity of relevant samples represents a novel application of this instrument. Examples of new knowledge that will be created include a better understanding of how contaminants are transformed in the environment, how microscopic organisms regulate bloom dynamics through communication, and how known biochemicals are transformed into molecules that can be preserved on long timescales, thus contributing to the production of oxygen and the sequestration of carbon dioxide. Such a molecular-level understanding of these processes is essential for determining the environmental factors that regulate them and how these processes may respond in the future. The data produced with this instrument will be publically available as a mass spectral library that will be of use to other fields including drug discovery, petroleum research, and metabolomics. In addition, several graduate students and post doctoral researchers will receive hands-on access to this instrument, providing valuable training that will prepare them well for careers in both academia and industry.This project will acquire a comprehensive gas chromatograph (GC×GC) coupled to a Pegasus HRT (High Resolution TOF) Mass Spectrometer (MS), which will be initially utilized to examine the diversity of organic molecules accumulating in aquatic environments and also to identify degradation products of chemical contaminants accumulating in various environment matrices. Organic geochemistry and environmental chemistry necessarily deals with complex matrices where thousands to millions of compounds derived from various sources, acted upon by abiotic and biotic processes, accumulate on short to millennial (and beyond) timescales. Chemical structures of these compounds carry critical information regarding source, mechanisms of transformation and residence time. Access to advanced analytical instrumentation continues to increase access to such information. Comprehensive gas chromatography, together with advanced mass deconvolution afforded by the high scan rates of the identified instrument (200 full mass range mass spectra per second) enables unprecedented ?separation? of complex mixtures of organic molecules. Additionally, the sub-ppm mass accuracy greatly enhances the likelihood of unknown compound identification. Together these two features make this instrument unique. Knowledge about the processes that shape the chemical composition of various environmental reservoirs will scale with the extent to which these complex samples can be chemically described. As such, there is a significant reward associated with comprehensively characterizing the chemical composition of such samples.