PFI-TT: Industrial scale production of high-performance, in-home water filters to protect public health from lead and arsenic in drinking water.

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系(PFI-TT)项目的广泛影响/商业潜力将有助于改善安全可靠的饮用水供应，确保在使用或消费的地点获得安全和健康的水。拟议的纳米技术支持的水过滤技术提供了一种独特的解决方案，作为一种家庭或使用点(POU)技术来解决饮用水污染物，如铅和砷。该技术可用于不受监管的供水，如私人饮用水水井，这些水井的水通常很少或根本不经过处理；日托中心、学校、办公室和其他大量使用喷泉和鼓泡器的环境；或者淡水资源有限的环境，如自然灾害或人道主义任务。拟议中的项目将推动纳米技术水处理设备走向应用规模。该项目将(I)扩大电纺工艺，以制造集成到POU处理设备中所需尺寸的纳米纤维膜片；(Ii)将这些纳米纤维膜片集成到POU处理原型平台中，以展示安装、使用和维护的简易性；以及(Iii)在消费产品认证的典型条件下，验证该设备可以去除铅和砷。这些复合纳米纤维水过滤器具有创新性，因为它们(I)简单、高度可调的合成方法；(Ii)更高的外表面积(而不是内部孔隙率)，实现快速、非扩散限制的目标去除速率；(Iii)可伸缩性，使其能够在一系列最终用户中应用；以及(Iv)从共集成的离子交换和吸着剂部位获得的多功能。这项技术的变革性方面与我们利用合成工艺创造具有协同性能特征的多功能纳米结构材料的能力有关；该技术依靠简单的“一锅”电纺合成来创建一个坚固的平台，该平台表面富含多种金属捕获剂。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnership for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project will help to improve access to safe and reliable drinking water supplies by ensuring safe and healthy water at the point where it is used or consumed. The proposed nanotechnology-enabled water filter technology provides a unique solution to drinking water pollutants, such as lead and arsenic, as an in-home or point-of-use (POU) technology. The technology could be used for unregulated water supplies like private drinking water wells, where water is often consumed with little to no treatment; day care centers, schools, offices, and other settings with extensive use of fountains and bubblers; or circumstances with limited freshwater resources, such as natural disasters or humanitarian missions.The proposed project will advance nanotechnology-enabled water treatment devices toward application scale. The project will (i) scale up electrospinning processes to fabricate nanofiber membrane sheets of dimensions necessary for integration into POU treatment devices; (ii) integrate these nanofiber membrane sheets into prototype POU treatment platforms to demonstrate ease of installation, use, and maintenance; and (iii) validate the device for removal of lead and arsenic under conditions typical of consumer product certification. These composite nanofiber water filters are innovative because of their (i) simple, highly tunable synthetic approach; (ii) higher external surface area (rather than internal porosity) enabling fast, non-diffusion limited rates of target removal; (iii) scalability, enabling application across a range of end users; and (iv) multi-functionality derived from co-integrated ion exchange and sorbent sites. The transformative aspect of this technology relates to our ability to exploit synthesis processes to create multi-functional, nanostructured materials with synergistic performance characteristics; the technology relies on a simple “one-pot” electrospinning synthesis for creation of a robust platform that is surface-enriched with multiple binding agents for metal capture.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.