ISS: Plasmonic Bubble Enabled Nanoparticle Deposition under Micro-Gravity

对于制造高度敏感的生物传感器而言，简单且具有成本效益的新技术可能极大地有利于广泛的重要应用，例如流行病/大流行传染病、癌症和其他生物制剂的早期检测。这种检测的一个主要挑战是目标分子的低浓度。该项目将利用表面热泡周围的流体流动，将目标分子集中并沉积在液体样品中，以提高其可探测性。PI将在国际空间站进行微重力实验，以调查浓缩/沉积过程，这将能够开发用于疾病检测、癌症诊断和环境监测的改进传感技术。考虑到对地面应用的潜在变革性影响，该项目与CASIS利用空间研究造福地球生命的使命相一致。该研究项目还将教育和培训来自巴黎圣母院代表性不足群体的研究生和本科生。通过这个项目，PI将为美国制造业和医疗保健行业培养未来的劳动力。PI还将扩展到当地的高中，并参加当地的科学活动，以扩大该项目的范围。本项目旨在了解激光激发表面上产生的热泡周围的流动现象。气泡周围的流动模式可以收集并最终将液体中的胶体颗粒沉积到表面上。该项目的总体目标是了解流动和沉积机制，以控制悬浮颗粒的沉积，从而使传感应用的新技术成为可能。PI将结合国际空间站的微重力实验和比较地面实验，辅以多物理场建模来实现这一理解。国际空间站的微重力环境将为解开气泡成核、生长和脱离的基本机制提供一个独特的平台。由于国际空间站缺乏热对流，因此可以将马兰戈尼效应与热对流效应分离，从而阐明它们在收集胶体颗粒并将其沉积在表面上的作用。本研究将有助于加深对热泡沉积过程的基本光热流体机制的理解，有助于推进纳米尺度相互作用、热流体和生物传感领域的发展。该研究项目还将教育和培训来自巴黎圣母院代表性不足群体的研究生和本科生。通过这个项目，PI将为美国制造业和医疗保健行业培养未来的劳动力。PI还将扩展到当地的高中，并参加当地的科学活动，以扩大该项目的范围。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。

Novel technologies that are simple and cost-effective for fabricating highly sensitive biosensors may significantly benefit a wide range of important applications, such as early detection of epidemic/pandemic infectious disease, cancers, and other biological agents. A major challenge for such detection is the low concentration of the target molecules. This project will leverage the fluid flow around a thermal bubble on a surface, concentrating and depositing the target molecules in the liquid sample, to enhance their detectability. The PI will perform microgravity experiments at the International Space Station to investigate the concentration/deposition processes, which will enable the development of improved sensing techniques for disease detection, cancer diagnosis and environmental monitoring. Given the potential transformative impacts for terrestrial applications, this project is aligned with the mission of CASIS to leverage space research to benefit life on earth. This research project will also educate and train graduate and undergraduate students from under-represented groups at Notre Dame. Through this project, the PI will cultivate a future workforce for the U.S. manufacturing and healthcare industries. The PI will also outreach to the local high schools and participate in local area science events to extend the outreach of this project. This project aims to understand the flow phenomena around a thermal bubble generated on a surface by a laser excitation. The flow pattern around the bubble can collect and eventually deposit colloidal particles in the liquid onto the surface. The overarching goal of this project is to understand the flow and deposition mechanism in order to control the deposition of suspended particles and thus enable new technologies for sensing applications. The PI will combine the microgravity experiments in the ISS and comparative terrestrial experiments complemented by multi-physics modeling to achieve this understanding. The micro-gravity environment in the ISS will provide a unique platform to unlock the fundamental mechanism of bubble nucleation, growth, and detachment. The lack of thermal convection in the ISS will allow the decoupling of the contribution of Marangoni effect from thermal convection effect to elucidate their roles in collecting colloidal particles and depositing them on the surface. This research will improve the understanding of the fundamental opto-thermal-fluidic mechanism of the thermal bubble deposition process, which will contribute to advancing the fields of nanoscale interactions, thermofluids and biosensing. This research project will also educate and train graduate and undergraduate students from under-represented groups at Notre Dame. Through this project, the PI will cultivate a future workforce for the U.S. manufacturing and healthcare industries. The PI will also outreach to the local high schools and participate in local area science events to extend the outreach of this project.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.