CAREER: Imaging and understanding the motion and interaction of nanoparticles near surfaces

在许多应用中，从药物输送到水过滤，纳米颗粒都要在不同的环境中运输。这种环境的例子有拥挤的生物介质和聚合物滤膜。该项目通过开发一种将纳米显微镜与数据驱动模型相结合的工作流程，以前所未有的分辨率研究纳米颗粒与非均质表面模型系统的运动和相互作用。当单个纳米粒子移动并与表面相互作用时，可视化和表征它们将影响包括纳米医学、生物学和环境修复在内的领域。在教育方面，该项目将吸引本科生、K-12学生和教师参与科学研究，以扩大STEM领域中代表性不足群体的学生的参与。通过开发模拟和实验教育模块，以及受纳米级相互作用科学发现启发的棋盘游戏，该项目将吸引公众参与，并提高科学素养。纳米粒子与其周围环境的相互作用，如附近的表面，在纳米医学、环境修复和传感等纳米尺度的传输过程中发挥着基础性的作用。该项目将开发一个新的统一框架，以直接可视化、表征、建模和设计单个纳米粒子在纳米和毫秒分辨率表面附近的运动和相互作用。通过将新兴的原位液态电子显微镜、纳米科学、机器学习和随机热力学相结合，PI将开发一种新的单粒子跟踪技术，该技术将能够在以前无法达到的长度尺度上探测单粒子的运动和相互作用的动力学。该项目的结果为设计纳米粒子在表面附近的运动提供了新的设计规则，并在分离、传感和纳米医学中产生了影响。此外，PI将开发一款科学棋盘游戏，灵感来自纳米级相互作用的物理学，以及纳米粒子如何在异质能源景观上移动，供当地科学节使用，以吸引公众参与科学研究。将与一名K-12教师合作开发实验和模拟教育模块，向高中生介绍扩散和相互作用的物理学。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。

In many applications, from drug delivery to water filtration, nanoparticles are transported through heterogeneous environments. Examples of such environments are crowded biological media and polymer filtration membranes. This project investigates the motion and interaction of nanoparticles with model systems of heterogeneous surfaces and with unprecedented resolution by developing a workflow that combines nanoscale microscopy with data-driven models. Visualizing and characterizing individual nanoparticles as they move and interact with surfaces will impact areas including nanomedicine, biology, and environmental remediation. On the educational aspect, this project will engage undergraduate students, K-12 students, and teachers in scientific research to broaden the participation of students from underrepresented groups in the STEM field. By developing simulation and experimental educational modules and a board game inspired by the scientific findings on nanoscale interactions, this project will engage the public and increase scientific literacy. Interactions of nanoparticles with their surrounding environment, such as nearby surfaces, play a foundational role in nanoscale transport processes involved in nanomedicine, environmental remediation, and sensing. This project will develop a new unified framework to directly visualize, characterize, model, and engineer the motion and interaction of single nanoparticles near surfaces with nanometer and millisecond resolution. By combining the emerging in situ liquid phase transmission electron microscopy, nanoscience, machine learning, and stochastic thermodynamics, the PI will develop a new single particle tracking technique that will enable probing the dynamics of single particles’ motion and interaction at a length scale inaccessible before. The results from this project offer new design rules for engineering the motion of nanoparticles near surfaces with impact in separations, sensing, and nanomedicine. Additionally, the PI will develop a science board game inspired by the physics of nanoscale interactions and how nanoparticles move on heterogeneous energy landscapes for local science festivals to engage the public in scientific research. Experimental and simulated educational modules will be developed in collaboration with a K-12 teacher to introduce high school students to the physics of diffusion and interaction.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.