SBIR Phase I: A Family of Sensor Dyes for Real-Time Optical Sensing of Metals in Aqueous Environments

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在提炼、拓宽和表征一种新的光学化学传感器染料系列，旨在实时监测和控制工业废水排放中的重金属浓度。这将使金属镀膜商、金属整理商、电路板制造商、油墨制造商和许多其他排放重金属废物的企业能够将处理成本平均降低25%至40%。与此同时，这项技术将有助于改善对环境保护局《清洁水法》和当地监管机构定义的排放限制的遵守情况。这将反过来降低下游城市污水处理厂的有毒金属处理成本。据市场调查估计，美国至少有15,000家企业是这种系统的潜在客户。据估计，这一垂直领域的全球市场规模至少为20亿美元。此外，许多其他细分市场，如国防和国土安全，可能会使用这些化学传感器阵列来在现实条件下准确检测重金属。该项目的智力优势在于，它进一步开发和评估了一系列化学传感器染料，这些染料随着时间的推移具有内在的稳定性，可以用于废水处理过程中连续、实时、重金属的监测，检测极限与环境法规相关。早期的工作表明，其中几组染料在准确和连续测量废水中特定金属的浓度方面具有重要的前景。为了量化每一种感兴趣的金属离子，分析了多种染料的输出，以提供特定金属的准确识别。传感器平台上的刚性连接允许更长时间的部署。具体地说，该项目旨在展示和评估传感器阵列对根据客户调查确定为废水行业主要分析需求的几种重金属的响应。这项工作将包括对相关金属离子的量化，以及对将组装的几个流动系统中这些测量随时间的稳定性进行评估。在一个成功的项目结束时，设想了一个可行的传感平台原型。展望未来，可以添加更多的染料，以便在感兴趣的浓度范围内对其他金属进行定量，干扰最小。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project seeks to refine, broaden and characterize a new family of optical chemosensor dyes designed for real-time monitoring and control of heavy-metal concentrations in industrial wastewater discharge. This will allow metal platers, metal finishers, circuit board manufacturers, ink manufacturers, and a multitude of other businesses that discharge heavy metal waste, the capability to reduce treatment costs by an average of 25% to 40%. At the same time, this technology will assist in improving compliance with discharge limits defined by the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water Act and by local regulatory agencies. This would in turn reduce toxic metal treatment costs at downstream municipal wastewater treatment plants. It is estimated from market surveys that at least 15,000 businesses in the United States are potential customers for such a system. The global market in this vertical is estimated to be at least $2 billion. In addition, many other market segments, such as defense and homeland security, could potentially use these chemosensor arrays to permit accurate detection of heavy metals in real-world conditions.The intellectual merit of this project is that it further develops and evaluates a family of chemosensor dyes that are inherently stable over time and can be used for continuous, real-time, heavy-metal monitoring in wastewater treatment processes with detection limits relevant to environmental regulations. Earlier work demonstrated that sets of several of these dyes have significant promise to accurately and continuously measure the concentration of specific metals in wastewater effluent. To quantify each metal ion of interest, the output of multiple dyes is analyzed to provide accurate identification of specific metals. Rigid attachment to the sensing platform allows for longer-term deployment. Specifically, this project intends to demonstrate and evaluate the response of a sensor array to several heavy metals identified, based on customer surveys, as the primary analytical needs of the wastewater industry. This effort will include the quantification of relevant metal ions and an evaluation of the stability of those measurements over time in several flow systems which will be assembled. A viable sensing platform prototype is envisioned at the end of a successful project. Moving forward, further dyes can be added to allow quantification of other metals over the concentration ranges of interest, with minimal interference.