CAREER: Leveraging the multifunctional redox properties of pyrogenic materials to enable biological transformations of aqueous organic contaminants

职业：利用热解材料的多功能氧化还原特性实现水性有机污染物的生物转化

• 批准号: 1944191
• 负责人: Douglas Call
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-07-01 至 2025-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1944191&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Leveraging; multifunctional; redox; properties

Pollution from past releases of toxic organic contaminants continue to plague the Nation’s water, soil, and sediment. While various technologies and approaches have been developed to remediate these legacy pollutants, they continue to present challenges for communities around the country. The overall goal of this CAREER project is to address these challenges and protect human and the environmental health by developing treatment technologies that more completely degrade toxic organic pollutants in a cost-effective manner. The basis for this technology is a hybrid microbial-material process. In this approach, microorganisms provide the driving force to enable reactions on the surface of materials that degrade the organic pollutant. While this process has shown great promise, there are many gaps in our knowledge of how this process occurs. The fundamental insight gained will permit the informed design and optimization of materials that can degrade specific pollutants. These materials can then be applied to engineered systems such as water and wastewater treatment plants. The integrated education plan will have significant and broad impacts and will reach a diverse audience of K-12 teachers and students through a mentoring program for underrepresented high school students in partnership with the NC School of Science and Mathematics. These efforts will increase the scientific literacy of the Nation and help develop the STEM workforce of the future.The overall goal of this CAREER project is to study the fundamental mechanisms of how microbial-driven electron transfer from redox-active materials transform organic contaminants. Conventional methods for the biological treatment of organic contaminants like chlorinated solvents rely on the activity of specific bacteria. These bacteria are often low in abundance and sparsely distributed in the subsurface, and materials that harness the activity of these bacteria can greatly enhance and sustain contaminant removal. Geobacter, a group of bacteria that are present in water, soil, and sediment are extremely metabolically versatile in their ability to utilize insoluble electron acceptors such as pyrogenic carbonaceous materials (PCMs). Geobacter use PCMs such as activated carbon and biochar to shuttle electrons through the material to abiotically degrade contaminants on the material surface. The PI will combine the tools of electrochemistry, microscopy, spectroscopy, and molecular biology to address knowledge gaps in our understanding of these interactions at microbial-material-contaminant interfaces. Three complimentary goals in the proposed program will be pursued: (1) Determine the role of PCM properties on microbial and contaminant reactivity, (2) Assess the role of contaminant adsorption on reaction kinetics and toxicity to the microorganisms, and (3) Determine the effect of environmental matrix components on the resiliency of reactions mediated by PCMs. With this information, a new generation of materials can be designed to degrade organic pollutants in applications including drinking water, stormwater, and bioremediation systems. The research objectives will be integrated with innovative education initiatives. K-12 teachers in biology will learn advanced microscopy and experiment kits to introduce students to environmental microbiology. Collaboration with the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation will leverage these activities to reach hundreds of K-12 teachers and students through existing school partnerships with the annual NC Science Teachers Association Conference. A multi-level mentoring program for underrepresented high school students will be piloted at the NC School of Science and Mathematics to provide research experiences to help students pursue careers in STEM. Finally, a new undergraduate-level lab on PCM microbial reactivity at will be developed at NCSU.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.

过去释放的有毒有机污染物造成的污染继续困扰着美国的水、土壤和沉积物。虽然已经开发了各种技术和方法来修复这些遗留污染物，但它们继续给全国各地的社区带来挑战。本职业发展项目的总体目标是，通过开发以成本效益高的方式更彻底地降解有毒有机污染物的处理技术，应对这些挑战，保护人类和环境健康。这项技术的基础是一种微生物-材料混合过程。在这种方法中，微生物提供驱动力，使降解有机污染物的材料表面的反应成为可能。虽然这一过程显示出巨大的希望，但我们对这一过程如何发生的了解仍有许多空白。获得的基本见解将允许对可以降解特定污染物的材料进行明智的设计和优化。然后，这些材料可以应用于工程系统，如水和废水处理厂。综合教育计划将产生重大而广泛的影响，并将通过与北卡罗来纳州科学与数学学院合作，为代表性不足的高中生提供指导计划，覆盖K-12教师和学生的不同受众。这些努力将提高国家的科学素养，并有助于培养未来的STEM劳动力。本CAREER项目的总体目标是研究微生物驱动的氧化还原活性材料的电子转移如何转化有机污染物的基本机制。生物处理有机污染物（如氯化溶剂）的传统方法依赖于特定细菌的活性。这些细菌通常丰度低，分布在地下，利用这些细菌活性的材料可以极大地增强和维持污染物的去除。地杆菌是一组存在于水、土壤和沉积物中的细菌，在利用不溶性电子受体如热原碳质物质（PCMs）的能力方面具有极强的代谢多样性。Geobacter使用pcm（如活性炭和生物炭）使电子在材料中穿梭，以非生物方式降解材料表面的污染物。PI将结合电化学，显微镜，光谱学和分子生物学的工具，以解决我们对微生物-材料-污染物界面这些相互作用的理解中的知识空白。该计划将追求三个互补的目标：(1)确定PCM特性对微生物和污染物反应性的作用，(2)评估污染物吸附对反应动力学和对微生物的毒性的作用，以及(3)确定环境基质成分对PCM介导的反应弹性的影响。有了这些信息，新一代的材料可以被设计用来降解应用中的有机污染物，包括饮用水、雨水和生物修复系统。研究目标将与创新教育计划相结合。K-12生物学教师将学习先进的显微镜和实验套件，向学生介绍环境微生物学。与周五教育创新研究所的合作将利用这些活动，通过与年度NC科学教师协会会议现有的学校合作伙伴关系，接触到数百名K-12教师和学生。北卡罗来纳州科学与数学学院将试行一项针对代表性不足的高中生的多层次指导计划，为学生提供研究经验，帮助他们从事STEM领域的职业。最后，将在NCSU建立一个新的PCM微生物反应性本科实验室。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。