PFI-TT: Development of Easy-to-Use Affordable Sensors for Rapid Detection of Environmental Pollutants

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是创造一种低成本技术，以检测、筛选和量化单氟烷基和多氟烷基物质（PFAS），这是一组新出现的环境污染物。PFAS用于许多商业产品和应用，最近被确定为对人类健康构成重大威胁。提出的技术通过提供更好地估计PFAS分布、暴露和处理效果所需的工具，解决了低成本检测PFAS的环境测试需求。通过与工业界和已建立的先进技术和创新中心的合作，该PFI-TT项目旨在建立用于现场分析的便携式设备的性能，测试和制造。其他活动包括市场策略的开发、客户发现和验证。本项目开发的技术可为非专业用户提供更广泛的采用，在环境部门提供社会和经济效益。该团队将与希普利创新中心和克拉克森大学研究生院合作，开发新的课程和劳动力发展模块，涵盖实验室管理、团队科学和知识产权，以及工作场所的团队合作和协作。该团队还将组织讲习班，培训本科生和研究生的创新和创业精神。拟议的项目旨在促进可编程受体的发展，这些受体能够通过静电和氟化物特异性相互作用与全氟磺酸发生反应，从而在受体的状态中产生浓度依赖的变化，从而能够通过低成本的光谱和电化学技术进行测量。对PFAS与受体相互作用的基础研究已经发现了独特的候选材料，它们的光学和电化学性质会随着PFAS的类型、长度、结构和浓度而改变。这个PFI-TT项目可能会制定协议和制造工艺，以制造便携式传感器，并建立PFAS定量检测的性能。易于使用、负担得起的PFAS传感器的可用性和商业化有可能导致更有效、更广泛、更低成本的分析，这可能转化为改进的环境污染监测。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 broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to create a low cost technology to detect, screen and quantify per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), an emerging group of environmental pollutants. PFAS are used in many commercial products and applications and have recently been identified as posing significant threats to human health. The proposed technology addresses the environmental testing needs for low cost detection of PFAS by providing the tools needed to better estimate their distribution, exposure, and treatment efficacy. Through partnerships with industry and established advanced technology and innovation centers, this PFI-TT project seeks to establish the performance, testing and manufacturing of a portable device for field analysis. Other activities include the development of a go-to-market strategy, customer discovery, and validation. The technology developed in this project may provide broader adoption by non-expert users, providing social and economic benefits in the environmental sector. The team will work with the Shipley Center for Innovation and the Graduate School at Clarkson University to develop new curriculum and workforce development modules covering laboratory management, team science and intellectual property, and teamwork and collaboration in the workplace. The team will also organize workshops to train undergraduate and graduate students in innovation and entrepreneurship. The proposed project seeks to advance the development of programmable receptors that have the capability to react with PFAS through electrostatic and fluoride-specific interactions, generating concentration-dependent changes in the status of the receptors, thus enabling their measurement by low cost spectroscopic and electrochemical techniques. Fundamental investigations of the interaction of PFAS with the receptors have led to the discovery of unique candidates that change their optical and electrochemical properties with the type, length, structure, and concentration of PFAS. This PFI-TT project may develop protocols and a manufacturing processes to create portable sensors and establish performance for quantitative detection of PFAS. The availability and commercialization of easy-to-use affordable PFAS sensors have the potential result in more effective, broadly available, and lower-cost analyses that may translate into improved monitoring of environmental pollution.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.