Collaborative Research: EAGER: Interaction of carbon-metal nanohybrids at environmental interfaces

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Engineered nanomaterials (NMs) represent a diverse class of extremely small particles ( 100nm) that are being widely used in industrial sectors such as energy, electronics, and sensing. As these applications demanded higher performance, the field of materials research has shifted its focus from using singular NMs (carbon only, metal only) to those comprised of several distinct types of NMs linked together, termed nanohybrids (NHs). Linking single NMs in this capacity is likely to create new properties and behavior in environmental and biological settings that have not yet been predicted or studied. As the scale of NH use rapidly increases there is likely to be significant opportunity for their presence in the aquatic environment. Therefore, the goal of this proposed work is to proactively identify novel and unanticipated properties and associated behavior of carbon-metal NHs that have current relevance to the fuel cell industry. These studies would be the first to investigate whether combining singular NMs to form NHs alters the way they behave in the environment and interact with aquatic organisms. Extracting novel properties by developing ensembles of two or more nano-scale materials is an emerging trend in several industries. However, most of our knowledge regarding nano-environmental behavior is limited to passive nanostructures with singular composition (e.g. carbon, metal). We hypothesize that NHs will display novel unforeseen properties that are highly important in driving their behavior in environmental matrices and organisms. To address this notion we propose to carry out the following aims: (1) synthesize a set of metal-carbon nanotube NHs with high degree of control with the objective of tuning band architecture and material stiffness; (2) characterize physical morphology, mechanical stiffness, band gap, distribution of metal/metal oxides on nanotubes; (3) examine NH interaction with the environmental interfaces by studying particle-particle and particle-collector interaction as well as determining particle dissolution in a wide range of environmental conditions; (4) assess behavior and interaction of NHs at biological interfaces using a well-established aquatic model coupled with high-throughput contemporary measurements of mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress. This work is innovative in that it is the first to execute controlled synthesis and characterization of a suite of NHs and component materials that will be investigated in aquatic environments and model organisms (fish). This work is timely in that it will lay the foundation for further research in understanding NHs in complex but relevant environments and reveal novel properties and mechanisms of action in biological systems that have not been studied. The proposed work will generate critical and fundamental knowledge to better understand the environmental interaction of a set of complex hierarchical nanomaterials, metal-carbonaceous NHs. These NHs are highly relevant to the expanding fuel cell industry; therefore, results of this work would directly influence materials science and nano communities and help inform the general public about nano-environmental research. In outreach and education aspects the PIs will recruit undergraduate researchers, including underrepresented students, through several well established programs at UT and UF such as Graduates Linked with Undergraduates in Engineering (GLUE) program, Texas Research Experience (TREX) program, Florida-Georgia Alliance for Minority Participation (FGAMP-SEAGEP) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Science for Life programs to recruit minority students.