Excellence in Research: Engineering Two-dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Nanomaterials for Sweat Sensing

该项目旨在提高北卡罗来纳中央大学化学与生物化学系少数族裔学生的参与度和学业成就。北卡罗来纳中央大学是一所历史悠久的黑人大学。该研究建立在我们在传感器开发和纳米技术方面的丰富研究经验的基础上，并将受益于与北卡罗莱纳州立大学材料科学与工程系和化学与生物分子工程系的科学家的密切合作。具体而言，该基金将资助八名本科生和四名研究生进行独立研究和/或论文研究。学生将参与开发灵活且具有成本效益的汗液传感平台，这将大大提高我们实时跟踪人的生理状态的能力，从而为医学诊断和治疗提供新的机会。学生将利用在研究中获得的知识和经验，为未来在科学、技术、工程和数学学科、工业和/或高等教育领域的职业生涯做准备。此外，本研究中制定的策略有望为环境监测、法医调查和医疗诊断等更广泛的应用提供新的见解。该项目的目标是开发一种新型可穿戴技术，用于实时监测汗液中的各种微量成分，包括水、电解质（如氯化物、钠、钾、镁和铵等）和代谢物（如乳酸和葡萄糖）。实时汗液传感为监测人体健康提供了一种有趣而经济的方法，这将对早期医学诊断和医疗保健非常有用。然而，目前的传感技术通常不能提供令人满意的便携性、灵敏度和选择性。二维（2D）超薄层状过渡金属二硫化物（TMD）材料是一种很有前途的汗液传感衬底。提出的研究将集中在三个综合目标上：1)了解2D TMD材料的汗液传感基础；2)开发合成具有理想化学物理性质的原始2D TMD nan片和贵金属纳米颗粒-TMD异质结构的能力；3)开发基于2D TMD材料的原型传感器，显示具有高灵敏度和选择性传感汗液成分的能力。除了研究和发展基于二维材料的汗液感应装置外，我们会整合外展和教育活动，以扩大科学研究的参与，培训下一代工作人员，并向社会广泛传播研究成果。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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 seeks to boost participation and academic success of underrepresented minority students in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at North Carolina Central University, a historically black university. The research builds on our extensive research experience in sensor development and nanotechnology, and will benefit from the close collaboration with scientists in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University. Specifically, the grant will provide support for eight undergraduate students and four graduate students for their independent and/or thesis research. The students will be involved in the development of flexible and cost-effective platforms for sweat sensing, which will considerably improve our ability of tracking a person's physiological state in a real-time fashion, and will thus provide a new opportunity for medical diagnostics and therapy. The students will use the knowledge and experience gained in the research to prepare for future careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics disciplines, industry, and/or higher education. Moreover, the strategies developed in this study are expected to provide new insights into a wider range of applications in environmental monitoring, forensic investigation, and medical diagnostics.The goal of this project is to develop a novel wearable technology for real-time monitoring of the various trace constituents in sweat, these include water, electrolytes (e.g., chloride, sodium, potassium, magnesium and ammonium etc.), and metabolites (e.g. lactate and glucose). Real-time sweat sensing presents an intriguing and cost-effective way to monitor the well-being of human body, which would be very useful for early stage medical diagnose and healthcare. However, the current sensing technique usually fall short of providing satisfactory portability, sensitivity, and selectivity. Two-dimensional (2D) ultrathin layered transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) materials emerged as a promising substrate for sweat sensing. The proposed research will focus on three integrated objectives: 1) Understanding the fundamentals of sweat sensing with 2D TMD materials, 2) Developing capabilities to synthesize pristine 2D TMD nan sheets and noble metal nanoparticle-TMD heterostructures with desirable chemo-physical properties, and 3) Developing prototype 2D TMD materials-based sensors showing capabilities of sensing the constituents of sweat with high sensitivity and selectivity. Along with the proposed work on research and development of 2D materials-based sweat sensing devices, outreach and education activities will be integrated to broaden participation in scientific research, to train next-generation work forces, and to broadly disseminate the results to the community.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.