Environmental fate of data poor inorganic contaminants- Developing novel tools and a better fundamental understanding

数据贫乏的无机污染物的环境命运——开发新工具和更好的基本理解

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-05983
• 负责人: Wilkinson, Kevin
• 金额: $ 5.46万
• 依托单位: Université de Montréal
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=715874
• 关键词: Environmental; fate; data; poor; inorganic

Thousands of new products and materials, with novel properties and reactivity, are being developed each year. Indeed, many of the technology critical materials used to fabricate solar cells, high performance magnets, electronics and catalysts incorporate either the lanthanide series elements or highly reactive nanomaterials. Although these emerging products have numerous applications and a greatly expanding production, few data are available about their potential environmental impacts. One critical missing element of ecological risk assessments for these novel materials are robust determinations of their concentrations, speciation and fate in complex environmental media. The overall research objective of our group is to identify, better understand and quantify the main biophysicochemical processes that control the fate and bioavailability of metals in environmental systems. The Discovery grant will be used to develop the underpinning science and analytical capacity that is required to rigorously evaluate the ecological risk of nanomaterials and rare earth metals. Funding will support the most fundamental aspects of our research, by specifically advancing three related fields of study: (i) development of our analytical capacity to measure low concentrations of small nanoparticles in complex systems and to distinguish anthropogenic from natural NP; (ii) improvements to our fundamental understanding of the main physicochemical processes (dissolution, agglomeration, heteroagglomeration, etc.) that determine the fate of nanomaterials in natural systems; (iii) increasing our mechanistic understanding on how the chemical speciation of metals in natural systems is related to their bioavailability. For nanoparticles, their colloidal stability (with respect to agglomeration) and dissolution are certain to influence their bioavailability. Analytical developments will be pursued to provide us with a novel ability to measure the fate of the smallest nanoparticles (1-20 nm) in both real and simulated natural systems. We will perform mechanistic studies on particle fate by varying important environmental parameters. The imminent addition of a time of flight - inductively coupled mass spectrometer (ICP-TOFMS) will provide us with the capacity to distinguish engineered nanomaterials from natural colloids and allow us to more closely examine heteroagglomeration under near natural conditions. Finally, work will be designed to eludicate the mechanism underlying the apparent bioavailability of rare earth metal complexes and to determine whether or not the greater than expected biouptake leads to increased biological effects. As seen above, the proposed work is extremely interdisciplinary and fundamental in nature and is designed to increase our overall understanding of environmental risk by carefully examining the molecular basis controlling the fate and bioavailability of emerging inorganic contaminants.

每年都会开发成千上万种具有新型特性和反应性的新产品和材料。实际上，许多用于制造太阳能电池，高性能磁铁，电子和催化剂的技术关键材料都融合了兰烷基系列元素或高反应性纳米材料。尽管这些新兴产品具有许多应用程序，并且生产大大扩展，但几乎没有有关其潜在环境影响的数据。这些新型材料的生态风险评估的一个关键缺失要素是对复杂环境媒体中其浓度，物种形成和命运的稳健确定。 我们小组的总体研究目标是确定，更好地理解和量化控制金属在环境系统中金属的命运和生物利用度的主要生物物理化学过程。发现赠款将用于开发严格评估纳米材料和稀土金属生态风险所需的基础科学和分析能力。资金将通过专门推进三个相关研究领域来支持我们研究中最根本的方面： （i）开发我们的分析能力，以测量复杂系统中低浓度的小纳米颗粒，并区分人为的NP； （ii）改善我们对决定自然系统中纳米材料命运的主要理化过程（溶出，聚集，异性群等）的基本理解； （iii）提高我们对金属在天然系统中如何与其生物利用度有关的机械理解。 对于纳米颗粒，它们的胶体稳定性（相对于聚集）和溶解肯定会影响其生物利用度。分析发展将被追求，以使我们具有在真实和模拟的自然系统中测量最小纳米颗粒（1-20 nm）的命运的新颖能力。我们将通过改变重要的环境参数来对粒子命运进行机械研究。即将增加飞行时间 - 电感耦合质谱仪（ICP -TOFMS）将为我们提供区分工程纳米材料与天然胶体区分自然胶体的能力，并使我们能够在近乎自然条件下更仔细地检查异质量。最后，将设计工作，以阐明稀土金属配合物的明显生物利用度的基础机制，并确定比预期的比预期的生物效应是否会导致生物学效应的增加。如上所述，拟议的工作在本质上是极其跨学科和基本性的，旨在通过仔细检查控制新兴无机污染物的命运和生物利用度来提高我们对环境风险的整体理解。