Nanomaterial Design for Environmental Health and Safety

项目摘要/摘要 项目4开发了针对环境健康挑战的纳米技术解决方案，并确定了 与Agnes Kane在项目2中密切合作的纳米毒性机制和安全设计原则 作为Brown SRP主题的一部分，即针对监管不确定性的综合生物医学和工程解决方案。 我们对纳米技术应用和安全的综合方法致力于创造新的环境 技术，同时确保其负责任的发展，了解有关纳米材料危害的数据。 我们建议制造和测试基于石墨烯的高性能环境屏障，以防止 气态毒物的释放和运输。不透水的、二维的、充满空间的几何形状 石墨烯提供了阻挡功能，其原子尺度的厚度为超低质量提供了可能性 装载量大，成本低。我们将制作平铺的多层氧化石墨烯阻挡层薄膜，用于包含 汞和三氯乙烯作为模拟蒸汽毒物。渗透率将作为以下参数的函数进行测量 厚度、沉积方法、水分含量，以及热还原和交联的后处理。我们 还将评估创造新型石墨烯透气屏障用于个人保护的潜力， 将出汗的水蒸气向外排出，同时阻止有毒物质向内流动。我们将与Dr. Eric Suuberg在项目3中描述了挥发性有机化合物在这些基于石墨烯的薄膜上的动态吸附 了解渗透机制，并将研究石墨烯的环境稳定性和降解 通过在罗德岛州受污染的现场进行长期实地研究，詹姆斯·赖斯博士在RTC工作。 项目4还将以分级毒性描述与吸入石墨烯有关的人类健康风险 测试方法跨越项目2和4。我们假设侧向尺寸和表面氧化状态 是石墨烯材料毒性的主要决定因素。在项目4中，我们将创建并描述一个面板 石墨烯材料的横向尺寸和细胞表面化学的系统变化，体外 以及活体测试。项目4将领导脱细胞表征，并将表征石墨烯促氧化剂 以及使用电子顺磁共振、染料氧化分析和定制的抗氧化行为 布朗大学开发了谷胱甘肽测定法，用于在纳米材料存在的情况下进行无伪影测量。我们会 还研究了石墨烯材料的环境和生物稳定性以及作为 在生物系统和自然环境中发现的机械、流体、氧化和辐射应激源。 最后，大多数纳米材料不是以纯形式使用，而是以配方复合材料或杂化材料的形式使用。我们会 制备并测试铜-石墨烯杂化化合物作为络合物的模型的细胞和生化行为 在纳米技术实践中发生的暴露。这项工作还将评估石墨烯的假设 胶囊化是减轻纳米颗粒在人体健康应用中毒性的有效策略。

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Project 4 develops nano-enabled technological solutions to environmental health challenges, and identifies mechanisms of nanotoxicity and principles of safe design in close collaboration with Agnes Kane in Project 2 as part of the Brown SRP theme of Integrated Biomedical & Engineering Solutions to Regulatory Uncertainty. Our integrated approach to nanotechnology applications and safety strives to create new environmental technologies, while ensuring their responsible development informed by data on nanomaterial hazard. We propose to fabricate and test high-performance graphene-based environmental barriers for preventing the release and transport of vapor toxicants. The impermeable, two-dimensional, space-filling geometry of graphene provides the barrier function, and its atomic-scale thickness offers the potential for ultra-low mass loadings and thus low cost. We will fabricate tiled, multilayer graphene oxide barrier films for containing mercury and trichloroethylene as model vapor toxicants. Permeability will be measured as a function of thickness, deposition method, water content, and post-processing by thermal reduction and cross-linking. We will also assess the potential to create novel graphene-based breathable barriers for personal protection that pass perspired water vapor outward while impeding the inward flow of toxicants. We will collaborate with Dr. Eric Suuberg in Project 3 to characterize the dynamic adsorption of VOCs onto these graphene-based films to understand permeation mechanisms, and will study environmental stability and degradation of graphene through long-term field studies at contaminated field sites in Rhode Island with Dr. James Rice in the RTC. Project 4 will also characterize human health risks associated with graphene inhalation in a tiered toxicity testing approach spanning Projects 2 and 4. We hypothesize that lateral dimension and surface oxidation state are the primary determinants of graphene material toxicity. In Project 4 we will create and characterize a panel of graphene materials with systematic variation in lateral dimension and surface chemistry for cellular, in vitro and in vivo testing. Project 4 will lead the acellular characterization and will characterize graphene pro-oxidant and antioxidant behaviors using electron paramagnetic resonance, dye oxidation assays, and a custom glutathione assay developed at Brown for artifact-free measurement in the presence of nanomaterials. We will also study the environmental and biological stability and degradation of graphene materials as a function of mechanical, fluid, oxidative, and radiative stressors found in biological systems and the natural environment. Finally, most nanomaterials are not used in pure form, but as formulated composites or hybrids. We will fabricate and test the cellular and biochemical behavior of copper-graphene hybrids as models for the complex exposures occurring in nanotechnology practice. This work will also assess the hypothesis that graphene encapsulation is an effective strategy for mitigating the toxicity of nanoparticles in human health applications.