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(PFI-TT)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是创建一种低成本技术，以检测、筛选和量化每氟烷基物质和多氟烷基物质(PFAS)，这是一组新兴的环境污染物。全氟辛烷磺酸被用于许多商业产品和应用中，最近被确定为对人类健康构成重大威胁。拟议的技术通过提供更好地估计全氟辛烷磺酸的分布、暴露和治疗效果所需的工具，满足了低成本检测全氟辛烷磺酸的环境测试需求。通过与工业界的伙伴关系和建立的先进技术和创新中心，这个PFI-TT项目寻求建立用于现场分析的便携式设备的性能、测试和制造。其他活动包括开发进入市场的战略、发现客户和验证。该项目开发的技术可为非专家用户提供更广泛的采用，为环境部门带来社会效益和经济效益。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合作。该团队还将组织研讨会，培训本科生和研究生创新创业。拟议的项目旨在推动可编程受体的开发，这些受体能够通过静电和氟化物特定的相互作用与全氟辛烷磺酸反应，产生受体状态随浓度变化的情况，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者，它们的光学和电化学性质随着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，并建立定量检测全氟辛烷磺酸的性能。易于使用、价格实惠的PFAS传感器的可用性和商业化可能会带来更有效、更广泛和更低成本的分析，从而可能转化为更好的环境污染监控。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.