INFEWS N/P/H2O (SusChEM): Understanding structure and organization of receptors at water interfaces for discovery of phosphate recognition design principles

在这个由化学系大分子、超分子和纳米化学项目资助的项目中，印第安纳州大学化学系的Amar Flood教授和俄亥俄州州立大学的石楠艾伦教授正在研究如何在水中选择性地结合磷酸盐。 磷是一种不可再生资源，也是提高作物产量的关键营养素，有助于养活地球上不断增长的人口。 然而，作为磷酸盐添加到农田中的大量磷作为径流进入溪流和河流。由此产生的磷酸盐在自然水道中的积累有助于促进藻类大量繁殖，杀死所有其他水生生物，可能导致市政供水中的毒素，并在海洋中导致有毒海鲜。由于这些原因，重要的是开发用于回收溶解在水中的磷酸盐的新化学品。该项目还包括通过跨学科研究培训对本科生和研究生进行教育，开发关于关闭人类磷循环的“大挑战”讲座，以及设计新的普通化学系列课程。Flood和艾伦教授的目标是通过利用水界面上组织成单层的合成受体来理解和发现控制磷酸盐识别的因素。这些接口创建强有力的环境，介电常数远低于散装水提供的潜力，大大提高亲和力，但这样的接口知之甚少。这些界面也可以作为帮助关闭人类磷循环所需的螯合材料的基本模型。这种合作的努力涉及一系列受体的合成，确定的亲和力和选择性的磷酸盐结合的受体时，他们在空气-水界面组织，光谱研究，以确定所产生的磷酸盐结合复合物的几何形状。

In this project funded by the Macromolecular, Supramolecular and Nanochemistry Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Amar Flood of the Department of Chemistry at Indiana University and Professor Heather Allen at the Ohio State University are developing an understanding of how to bind phosphate selectively in water. Phosphorous is a non-renewable resource and a critical nutrient for enhancing crop yields to help feed the growing population of the planet. However, a significant amount of the phosphorous that is added as phosphate to agricultural fields is lost as run-off into streams and rivers. The resulting buildup of phosphate in natural waterways helps fuel algal blooms that kill off all other aquatic life, can lead to toxins in the municipal water supplies and, when in the oceans, leads to toxic seafood. For these reasons it is important to develop new chemistries for recovering phosphate dissolved in water. This project also involves the education of undergraduate and graduate students through interdisciplinary research training, the development of "Grand Challenge" lectures on closing the human phosphorous cycle, and the design of a new general chemistry course series.Professors Flood and Allen aim to understand and discover the factors controlling the recognition of phosphate by making use of synthetic receptors organized in monolayers at water interfaces. These interfaces create potent environments with dielectric constants much below bulk water offering the potential to substantially enhance affinities, yet such interfaces are poorly understood. Such interfaces also serve as fundamental models for the sequestration materials needed to help close the human phosphorus cycle. This collaborative effort involves the synthesis of a series of receptors, the determination of the affinity and selectivity of phosphate binding to the receptors when they are organized at air-water interfaces, and spectroscopic studies to ascertain the geometries of the resulting phosphate-bound complexes.