MRI: Acquisition of a GC Hybrid Orbitrap High Resolution Tandem Mass Spectrometer for Environmental Science

该项目将购置一台最先进的质谱仪，以帮助查明空气、土壤和个人接触监测器等环境样品中的未知化学品污染物和化学品混合物。该仪器将被安置在杜克环境暴露组学中心。该设备将作为一个资源，研究人员和学生跨越几个部门在校园内，以及为研究人员在中央北卡罗来纳州地区。 研究人员将能够将样品提交给设施经理，后者将使用质谱仪以比以前更高的准确性和信心来识别样品中的未知化学物质。该仪器还将用于开发一门新课程，以加强环境和分析化学方面的研究生教育。该课程将教学生如何使用质谱仪生成的数据查询化学结构数据库，以积极识别化学品，并更多地了解其来源，生产量和环境中的命运。购置一台高分辨率质谱仪将有助于北卡罗来纳州中部研究人员对环境中未知挥发性和半挥发性有机化学品的复杂混合物进行结构解析。访问该仪器将大大推进研究调查的命运，运输和环境样品中的复杂混合物中发现的化学污染物的转化是校园内的几个研究中心的重点，包括杜克中心环境暴露组学，杜克超级基金研究中心和纳米技术的环境影响中心。该提案中概述的研究项目都侧重于识别环境样品中未知或以前未识别的污染物的复杂混合物，这一直是推进对周围环境中化学污染物研究的障碍。该仪器的主要用户将参与研究，不仅调查与环境有关的混合物的接触情况，而且还研究改进和设计传感器，以检测低水平的污染物，并开发补救工具和技术，以减少与这些污染物有关的生态风险。这种高性能的质谱仪很少直接用于学术环境，而获得这种仪器将使杜克成为美国东南部地区唯一一个为环境科学研究提供这种支持的机构。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is to acquire a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer that will help identify unknown chemicals pollutants and mixtures of chemicals in environmental samples, such as air, soil and personal exposure monitors. The instrument will be housed in the Duke Center for Environmental Exposomics. This equipment will serve as a resource to researchers and students spanning several departments on campus as well as for researchers within the central North Carolina region. Researchers will be able to submit samples to the facility manager, who will use the mass spectrometer to identify unknown chemicals in the samples with greater accuracy and confidence than has previously been available. The instrument will also be used to develop a new course to enhance graduate education in environmental and analytical chemistry. The course will teach students how to interrogate chemical structure databases using data generated by the mass spectrometer to make positive identification of chemicals, and to learn more about their sources, production volumes and fate in the environment. Acquisition of a high-resolution mass spectrometer will support structural elucidation of complex mixtures of unknown volatile and semi-volatile organic chemicals in the environment under study by researchers in central North Carolina. Access to this instrument will significantly advance research investigations on the fate, transport, and transformation of chemical pollutants found in complex mixtures in environmental samples that are the focus of several research centers on campus, including the Duke Center for Environmental Exposomics, the Duke Superfund Research Center, and the Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology. The research projects outlined within this proposal share a focus on identifying complex mixtures of unknown or previously unidentified contaminants in environmental samples, which has been an obstacle to advancing research on chemical contaminants in the ambient environment. Major users of this instrument will engage in research to investigate not only exposure of environmentally relevant mixtures, but also research to improve and design sensors to detect contaminants at low levels and develop remediation tools and techniques to reduce the ecological risks associated with these contaminants. Seldom have such high-performance mass spectrometers been directly available in an academic setting, and acquisition of this instrument would enable Duke to become the only institution within the U.S. southeastern region to offer this support for environmental science research.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.