Small-Scale, Loop-Based Chemical Separations and In-line Sampling Employing Magnetoelectrochemical Methods

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This project is funded by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program of the Chemistry Division. Professor Ingrid Fritsch of the University of Arkansas is developing a fast and versatile approach for screening components of crude synthetic mixtures of biologically-relevant chemicals in ultrasmall volumes. This new approach to chemical separations does not require high pressures nor high voltages. It also minimizes expense and improves portability. To meet these separation challenges, magnets and electricity are used to propel the fluid mixtures in the separation system. The system is essentially an indefinitely extended loop where analytes are separated. Each component is removed in a programmable fashion as it pulls away from the others so that separation conditions can be optimized for the rest. This approach advances opportunities for and has economic bearing on drug design, such as in peptide therapeutics, and other chemical products of interest for medical, pharmaceutical, and environmental uses. In an outreach partnership with High School teachers, a self-sustaining summer science workshop, developed by students, for students, focuses on concepts in the research project while highlighting the personalization and humanization of the science.In this project, high-efficiency chemical separations at the small scale with the ability to program column length "on-the-fly" are being developed. Magnetoelectrochemical pumping in loop-based microfluidic channels, combined with ultrasensitive in situ detection of separations, determine conditions for the best separation efficiencies of mixtures focused on therapeutic peptides. Complementary fluorescence techniques are used, including total internal reflection, wide field imaging, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy. An in-line sampling approach enables near real-time monitoring and tuning of separations. In addition, numerical simulations in three dimensions provide a better understanding of experimental results and suggest designs for improved efficiencies. Personnel at the University of Arkansas partner with a public high school, Haas Hall Academy to initiate and foster a self-sustaining week long summer science workshop. In an outreach partnership with High School teachers, a self-sustaining summer science workshop is under development. Broader impacts to society include facilitation of therapeutic peptide drug design and development through the screening of small quantities of synthetic mixtures with minimal expense.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.