Functional Porous Organic Polymers as Advanced Decontamination Materials for Water Purification

1706025 Ma最近，在飓风Hermine期间，2000万加仑未经处理的废水被释放到佛罗里达的坦帕湾，2.15亿加仑的轻微放射性水通过一个天坑开口进入佛罗里达含水层。在佛罗里达，这些事件引起了当地居民和州政府官员的相当大的关注，全国各地的类似事件也是如此。随着大量新材料的出现，现在可能是时候检查我们的水处理方式和我们处理浪涌条件的能力了。该项目旨在开发和应用一类新型多孔有机聚合物，该聚合物具有高容量和选择性，可快速去除远低于环境保护局规定的百万分之一水平标准的重金属污染物。该项目将设计多孔有机聚合物的孔隙率和表面化学，以清除地表水和废水中的无机重金属污染物。 多孔有机聚合物是坚固的、化学和热稳定的、可扩展的和模块化的，具有非常高的表面积。这些聚合物的模块性允许对孔结构和表面化学进行分子水平的调整，从而允许靶向重金属污染物的结合位点的工程化位点特异性。最近的数据显示，这些新材料相对于基准材料的容量显著增加，可快速去除汞和其他重金属离子。本项目将通过定制具有不同结合基团的单体来探索这些具有不同拓扑结构的多孔聚合物的合理设计，从而推进这一概念。该项目的目标包括设计，合成和表征，然后评估这些材料去除水中无机污染物，第三，开发具有多个识别位点的材料去除复杂的无机污染物。这项工作将影响废水处理，包括市政用水，以及核，水力压裂和采矿业。PI将继续在他们的实验室指导代表性不足的群体，并为第一代大学生提供有关材料，能源和环境的夏季研讨会和网页。

1706025 MaRecently, 20 million gallons of untreated wastewater were released into Florida's Tampa Bay during Hurricane Hermine, and 215 million gallons of slightly radioactive water entered the Floridian Aquifer through a sinkhole opening. In Florida, these events have caused considerable concern from local residents and state officials, as have similar events across the country. With the advent of a multitude of new materials, it may be time to examine the ways in which our water is treated and our ability to treat surge conditions. This project seeks to develop and deploy a new class of porous organic polymers which have high capacity and selectivity to rapidly remove heavy metal contaminants well below parts per million level standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.The project will engineer porosity and surface chemistry of porous organic polymers to clean inorganic heavy metal contaminants from both surface water and wastewater. Porous organic polymers are robust, chemically and thermally stable, scalable, and modular, with very high surface area. The modularity of these polymers allows for a molecular-level tuning of the pore structure and surface chemistry that allows for engineered site-specificity of binding sites that target the heavy metal contaminants. Recent data shows these new materials offer a significant increase in capacity relative to benchmark materials, with a rapid removal of mercury and other heavy metal ions. This project will advance the concept by exploring rational design of these porous polymers with different topologies by customizing the monomer with various binding groups. The objectives of the project include design, synthesis, and characterization, followed by assessment of these materials to remove inorganic contaminants from water, and thirdly, development of materials with multiple recognition sites for removal of complex inorganic contaminants. The work will impact wastewater treatment, including municipal water, as well as the nuclear, fracking, and mining industries. The PIs will continue to mentor underrepresented groups in their laboratory and present a summer workshop and a web page regarding materials, energy, and the environment for first-generation college students.