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

工程纳米材料(NMS)代表了各种各样的极小颗粒(100 Nm)，它们被广泛应用于能源、电子和传感等工业部门。由于这些应用要求更高的性能，材料研究领域已经将其重点从使用单一的NMS(仅限碳，仅限金属)转移到由几种不同类型的NMS连接在一起的NMS组成的NMS，称为纳米杂化(NHS)。在这种能力下将单个NMS联系起来，可能会在尚未预测或研究的环境和生物环境中创造新的特性和行为。随着NH使用量的迅速增加，它们很可能会出现在水环境中。因此，这项拟议工作的目标是主动识别当前与燃料电池行业相关的碳金属NHS的新的和意想不到的特性和相关行为。这些研究将首次调查将单一NMS组合成NHS是否会改变它们在环境中的行为方式以及与水生生物的相互作用。通过开发两种或两种以上纳米材料的系综来提取新的特性是几个行业中的一个新兴趋势。然而，我们关于纳米环境行为的大部分知识仅限于具有单一组成的被动纳米结构(例如碳、金属)。我们假设NHS将展示新的不可预见的特性，这些特性在驱动它们在环境基质和生物体中的行为方面非常重要。为了解决这个问题，我们建议实现以下目标：(1)合成一套高度可控的金属-碳纳米管NHS，以调节能带结构和材料硬度；(2)表征纳米管的物理形态、机械硬度、带隙、金属/金属氧化物的分布；(3)通过研究颗粒-颗粒和颗粒-捕收剂的相互作用以及在广泛的环境条件下测定颗粒的溶解来考察NH与环境界面的相互作用；(4)使用成熟的水生模型结合高通量的线粒体功能障碍和氧化应激的同时测量，评估NHS在生物界面上的行为和相互作用。这项工作的创新之处在于，它是第一次对一套NHS及其组成材料进行受控合成和表征，这些材料将在水环境和模式生物(鱼类)中进行研究。这项工作是及时的，因为它将为在复杂但相关的环境中理解NHS的进一步研究奠定基础，并揭示尚未研究的生物系统中的新特性和作用机制。拟议的工作将产生关键和基础知识，以更好地了解一组复杂的分级纳米材料-金属-碳质NHS的环境相互作用。这些NHS与不断扩大的燃料电池行业高度相关；因此，这项工作的结果将直接影响材料科学和纳米社区，并有助于向公众提供有关纳米环境研究的信息。在外展和教育方面，私人投资机构将通过德克萨斯大学和密歇根大学几个成熟的计划，如与工程学本科生挂钩(GLUE)计划、德克萨斯研究体验(TREX)计划、佛罗里达-佐治亚州少数族裔参与联盟(FGAMP-SEAGEP)和霍华德·休斯医学院(HHMI)生命科学计划，招募本科研究人员，包括代表性不足的学生。

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.