CAREER: The role of Nitrogen Photofixation on Agriculture and K12 Science

这项工作的目标是在农场使用廉价和安全的矿物质生产肥料。在农场生产化肥，而不是在大型的中央设施生产化肥，可以减少目前化肥生产实践中排放的碳和氮。该研究将开发出一种极具潜力的革命性技术，该技术仅使用太阳作为能量来源，将空气转化为肥料。然后，研究人员将评估增加这种太阳能设备的肥料产量所需的材料和系统。该教育计划将开发K-12科学教室的教学部分，将氮循环与粮食生产和清洁农业联系起来。该研究将利用先进的同步加速器技术、光催化测试和详细的热力学分析来阐明氮光固定的影响。PI将确定在环境条件下使用二氧化钛基矿物增加光催化固氮速率的活性位点和环境条件。活性位点鉴定将在乔治亚理工学院和国家实验室使用先进的原位表面科学和光谱学进行。动力学数据的获取将通过一系列的台架和现场光催化实验进行。动力学数据将作为系统级能源和火用分析的基础，重点是识别分散的太阳能驱动的肥料生产系统对环境的影响。此外，原子尺度的洞察与现场测试相结合，将寻求辨别地球丰富的矿物质（二氧化钛）在自然非生物氮循环中所起的作用。该教育计划的目标是开发新的方法，在K-12、本科和研究生阶段传达氮循环的复杂性和影响。在K-12阶段，PI将与高中教师合作开发新的教学模块，重点关注氮循环的不平衡。教师将在pi实验室工作，了解研究，然后开发一个课程，积极纳入新的研究成果。此外，环境工程实践者将使学生参与将氮循环相关问题与实际环境工程联系起来的努力。教学模块将通过开放论坛广泛传播。这项研究具有变革性，因为它将允许开发使用点营养物生产和基于修复的技术，这些技术可以通过促进获得清洁空气、水和食物来帮助不断增长的全球人口。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The goal of this work is to produce fertilizer on farms using only inexpensive and safe minerals. Producing fertilizers at a farm rather than at large central facilities can reduce the carbon and nitrogen emissions released from current fertilizer production practices. The research will develop a highly potentially revolutionary technology that transforms air into fertilizer using only the sun as the source of energy. The investigator will then evaluate the materials and systems needed to increase fertilizer production from this solar-based device. The education plan will develop a teaching component for K-12 science classrooms, which will connect the nitrogen cycle with food production and clean agriculture.The proposed research will elucidate the impact of nitrogen photofixation using advanced synchrotron-based techniques, photocatalytic testing, and detailed thermodynamic analysis. The PI will identify the active sites and environmental conditions that increase the rate of photocatalytic nitrogen fixation at ambient conditions using titanium dioxide-based minerals. Active site identification will occur using advanced in-situ surface science and spectroscopy conducted at Georgia Tech and in a national laboratory. Acquisition of kinetic data will occur through a series of bench and in-field photocatalytic based experiments. Kinetic data will serve as the foundation for a systems level analyses of energy and exergy focused on discerning the environmental impacts of decentralized solar-driven fertilizer production systems. In addition, the atomic scale insight coupled with field tests will seek to discern the role earth abundant minerals (titanium dioxide) play in the natural abiotic nitrogen cycle. The goal of the education plan is to develop new approaches to communicate the complexity and impacts of the nitrogen cycle at the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels. At the K-12 level, the PI will engage with high school teachers to develop new teaching modules focused on the imbalance in the nitrogen cycle. Teachers will work in the PIs laboratory to understand the research, and then develop a curriculum that actively incorporates novel research findings. In addition, environmental engineering practitioners will engage students in efforts that connect issues related to the nitrogen cycle to actual environmental engineering. Broad dissemination of the teaching modules will occur through an open access forum. This research is transformative, as it will allow for the development of point-of-use nutrient production and remediation based technologies that can aid a growing global population through facilitating greater access to clean air, water, and food.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.