SBIR Phase I: Portable, Inexpensive, and Robust Plasmonic Mercury Vapor Monitors

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种强大的、便携式的、低功率等离子体汞监测仪，能够测量环境（每立方米纳克）空气中的汞水平。汞环境监测是一个价值6亿美元的市场，其中估计有2亿美元花在仪器上。现有仪器采用自动化实验室方法，需要笨重的设备、频繁的校准、惰性气体和高功率。这种基于金纳米颗粒薄膜的方法可以降低操作人员的成本，并将监测范围扩大到目前现有系统服务不足的地区。特别值得注意的是手工采矿场地，这是汞排放的最大单一来源。为了将汞监测扩展到这些地点和其他远程环境，需要一个成本大大降低、操作更容易、功能更强大的汞监测平台。除了汞，基于纳米颗粒薄膜的等离子体传感器有潜力开拓更广阔的（40亿美元）化学和生物传感市场。本课题的智力优势在于开发了一种基于金纳米粒子薄膜的局部表面等离子体共振（LSPR）的新型传感平台。利用贵金属纳米颗粒独特的光学特性用于高灵敏度的分析仪器，需要对科学的更好理解和适当的工程控制。用金纳米颗粒进行汞传感为该平台提供了理想的第一个目标。该项目的具体目标是：改进纳米颗粒薄膜的制造；研究新的光学结构，用光来询问薄膜；测试和开发包装和控制系统，以处理和分析环境浓度水平下的空气样本。这项研究将产生一种具有便携性和灵敏度的独特组合的等离子体汞传感器原型。这将是描述汞的环境行为和对人类健康的风险的宝贵工具。除了汞之外，这个等离子体检测平台的进步将适用于各种各样的化学和生物分析。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will develop a robust, portable, low-power plasmonic mercury monitor capable of measuring ambient (nanograms per cubic meter) levels of mercury in air. Environmental monitoring of mercury is a $600 million market, with an estimated $200 million spent on instruments. Incumbent instruments are adapted from automated laboratory methods requiring bulky equipment, frequent calibration, inert gasses, and high power. The method to be developed, based on gold nanoparticle films, can lower costs to operators and expand monitoring to areas currently underserved by existing systems. Of particular note are artisanal mining sites, which represent the single largest source of mercury emissions. To expand mercury monitoring to these sites and other remote settings, a drastically less expensive, easier to operate, and more robust mercury sensing platform is needed. Beyond mercury, plasmonic sensors based on nanoparticle films have the potential to address the broader ($4 billion) chemical and biological sensing markets.The intellectual merit of this project derives from the development of a new sensing platform based on the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) of a gold nanoparticle film. Harnessing the unique optical properties of noble metal nanoparticles for use in highly sensitive analytical instruments requires an improved understanding of the science and properly engineered controls. Mercury sensing with gold nanoparticles provides an ideal first target for this platform. The specific aims of this project are to: improve the nanoparticle film fabrication; investigate new optical configurations to interrogate the films with light; and test and develop a packaging and control systems to handle and analyze air samples at ambient concentration levels. This research will result in a prototype plasmonic mercury sensor with a unique combination of portability and sensitivity. It will be a valuable tool in characterizing the environmental behavior of mercury and the risks to human health. Beyond mercury, the advances anticipated for this plasmonic detection platform will apply to a wide variety of chemical and biological analytes.