The role of indoor dust in modulating indoor air chemistry: assessing air-dust heterogeneous transformations and human exposures

这个项目的重点是表征室内空气化学，这是由有机化合物与空气中的灰尘相互作用产生的。这项工作将促进对室内粉尘化学的理解，特别是在容易受到外部源排放渗入室内的较高污染物浓度的家庭。预计研究结果将有助于更好地了解室内空气中对人体健康构成重大风险的个别化合物或化合物组。将进行实验，系统地表征气相和颗粒相有机化合物与室内灰尘的相互作用，包括它们的分配和随后的非均相化学。本项目的目标是：(1)描述室外污染物（来自机动车、生物质燃烧和烹饪等来源）的复杂混合物中目标粉尘前体的化学转化途径和最终产物，这些污染物渗入家庭并暴露于室内活性气体（例如，臭氧、氮氧化物、羟基自由基）；(2)使用非靶向质谱方法在实验室产生的和真正的新鲜和陈年室内粉尘的复杂混合物中识别新的化学反应产物；(3)确定新鲜和陈年粉尘束缚和再挥发产品混合物的氧化电位和暴露风险。所研究的室内空气的化学成分和暴露风险评估将通过互动网络工具向公众发布。将与圣路易斯华盛顿大学学校伙伴关系研究所合作，为中学生及其教师组织一系列讲习班。该项目将支持林肯大学（位于密苏里州杰斐逊城的一所历史悠久的黑人大学）的学生在整个项目期间每年夏天进行实验室研究。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。

This project is focused on characterizing indoor air chemistry that results from the interactions of organic compounds with airborne dust. This work will advance the understanding of indoor dust chemistry, especially in homes susceptible to higher pollutant concentrations from outside source emissions that infiltrate indoors. The results are expected to lead to a better understanding of individual compounds or compound groups in indoor air that pose significant human health risk.Experiments will be conducted to systematically characterize the interactions of gas- and particle-phase organic compounds with indoor dust, including their partitioning and subsequent heterogeneous chemistry. The objectives of this project are to: (1) Characterize the chemical transformation pathways and resulting products from target dust-bound precursors from within complex mixtures of outdoor pollutants (from sources such as motor vehicle, biomass burning, and cooking) that infiltrate the home and become exposed to indoor reactive gases (e.g., ozone, nitrogen oxides, hydroxyl radicals); (2) Identify novel chemical reaction products in lab-generated and genuine complex mixtures of fresh and aged indoor dust using non-targeted mass spectrometry approaches; and (3) Determine the oxidative potential and exposure risks of fresh and aged dust-bound and re-volatilized product mixtures.The chemical composition and exposure risk evaluations of the indoor air studied will be disseminated to the public via an interactive web tool. A series of workshops will be organized for middle school students and their teachers in collaboration with the Institute for School Partnership at Washington University in St. Louis. The project will support students from Lincoln University, a historically Black institution in Jefferson City, MO, to perform laboratory research each summer throughout the 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.