Evaluating Stability and Environmental Safety of Nanocomposites

PI：奥尔洛夫，亚历山大#1604751纳米材料和纳米结构已经在美国制造业的许多领域带来革命性的变化。含有纳米材料的几种复合产品也正在进入消费市场。然而，开发新的纳米产品，同时确保消费者的安全，是一个非常关键的任务，以保障美国纳米制造业的竞争力和可持续发展。该项目的目的是解决在环境因素影响下，聚合物中封装的碳纳米管（CNT）的稳定性和释放速率方面的知识空白。这些信息对于设计稳定和安全的纳米复合材料至关重要，同时重新制定可能构成健康风险的纳米复合材料。用这些纳米材料增强的聚合物材料现在正处于改变许多行业的边缘。这些新的纳米复合材料受益于 碳纳米管具有许多独特的性能，可以提供非凡的刚度，减轻重量，增加强度和弹性。虽然CNT被认为是潜在的危险，但当封装到聚合物基质中时，它们通常被认为是安全的。然而，尽管释放的纳米材料对人类健康和环境具有潜在风险，但缺乏系统的研究来证实上述范例。我们的初步数据表明，由于暴露于环境因素，特别是紫外线辐射和水分，CNT-聚合物复合材料存在大量降解，导致CNT释放的潜在途径。在拟议的研究中，PI将对暴露于单一和多种环境因素的纳米复合材料的稳定性进行系统研究，同时准确量化纳米材料的释放速率。拟议研究的一个非常独特的方面是对纳米复合材料的性能和功能（机械测试），长期稳定性（环境暴露和光谱/显微镜表征）和毒性测量进行全面评估。这三个方面将提供前所未有的详细程度，以评估具有最有前途的功能特性的纳米复合材料的环境和健康风险。该项目将通过评估提供功能性纳米复合材料的各种策略，减少对健康和环境的影响，从而对纳米毒理学、环境工程、材料科学和绿色化学/工程领域产生重大影响。这些方法的目的是及时作出贡献的环境健康和纳米技术的安全的基本理解。它们还将为确保美国纳米制造业的竞争力做出显着贡献。在这个项目的过程中，学生将获得科学和工程的许多领域的基础和应用知识，包括环境健康和纳米技术的安全。通过利用创新的在线工具，我们将接触到代表性不足的群体，包括来自少数民族和经济弱势社区的学生以及女性。所有这些活动都将为实现该提案的显著广泛影响奠定良好基础。

PI: Orlov, Alexander# 1604751Nanomaterials and nanostructures are already revolutionizing many areas of the US manufacturing. Several composite products containing nanomaterials are also being introduced into a consumer market. However, developing new Nano products, while ensuring safety of consumers, is a very critical task to safeguard competitive and sustainable development of the US nanomanufacturing. The objective of this project is to address the knowledge gap in stability and rate of release of Carbon Nanotubes (CNTs) encapsulated in polymers under the influence of environmental factors. This information will be vital in designing stable and safe nanocomposites while reformulating the ones potentially posing the health risks. Polymer materials reinforced with these nanomaterials are now at the verge of transforming many industries. These new nanocomposites benefit from many unique properties of CNTs, which can deliver extraordinary stiffness, reduction in weight, increased strength and resilience. Although CNTs are considered potentially hazardous, they are often viewed as safe when encapsulated into the polymer matrix. However, systematic research to confirm the abovementioned paradigm is lacking, despite the potential risks of released nanomaterials to human health and environment. Our preliminary data indicate that there is substantial degradation of CNTs -polymer composites due to exposure to environmental factors, especially UV radiation and moisture, leading to potential pathways for CNTs release. In the proposed research the PI will conduct a systematic study of stability of nanocomposites exposed to single and multiple environmental factors, while accurately quantifying the rates of nanomaterials release. A very distinct aspect of the proposed research is a comprehensive evaluation of nanocomposites in terms of their performance and functionality (mechanical testing), long term stability (environmental exposure and spectroscopic/microscopy characterization) and toxicity measurements. These three aspects will give an unprecedented level of detail to evaluate environmental and health risks of nanocomposites with the most promising functional properties. This project will significantly impact nanotoxicology, environmental engineering, materials science and green chemistry/engineering areas through evaluation of various strategies for delivering functional nanocomposites with reduced health and environmental impacts. These approaches are designed to make timely contributions to a basic understanding of the environmental health and safety of nanotechnology. They will also make a notable contribution to ensuring the competitiveness of the US nanomanufacturing industry. During the course of this project students will gain fundamental and applied knowledge in many areas of science and engineering encompassing environmental health and safety of nanotechnology. By utilizing innovative on-line tools we will reach underrepresented groups, including students from minority and economically disadvantaged communities as well as females. All these activities will establish a good foundation to achieve notable broader impacts of this proposal.