Tubular and Planar Approaches to Separations (TAPAS)

在化学系化学测量成像（CMI）项目的支持下，Purnendu K.（桑迪）达斯古普塔和他在德克萨斯大学阿灵顿分校的学生们正在努力提高一系列重要仪器的性能和便携性，这些仪器被称为色谱仪。 这些仪器广泛用于分离复杂混合物的成分，从而能够对分离的成分进行进一步分析。 色谱的基础科学对于以下应用至关重要：确保半导体工业中使用的试剂的纯度;环境分析（包括监测无法在长途旅行中存活的反应性污染物）;监测水消毒副产物;制造药品;以及监测食品安全。Dasgupta小组正在努力使这些仪器易于现场便携（小，轻，低功耗和低成本），而不影响其分离能力。 其目标是在医生办公室或病人床边进行现场测量;工业故障排除;潜艇甚至国际空间站的水监测。通过从初中和高中实习生到博士后研究员的学生的参与，Dasgupta教授还解决了对训练有素的人使用这些技术的高需求。 随着他开发新的仪器和技术，他将它们纳入实验室课程，并与仪器制造商合作进行商业化。Dasgupta小组正在使用在以前的NSF资助项目中开发的可模塑离子交换聚合物来制造离子传输驱动的非机械nL/min - uL/min泵和模塑微通道，以提供超微型抑制器和洗脱液发生器。具有螺旋和2D/3D蛇形几何形状的开放通道柱正在系统地研究其分离能力。 这些柱可以通过3D打印和近红外激光加工制造，使其价格低廉，易于大规模生产。该团队正在探索用于灵敏检测的直接光热和多重反射吸收测量，以及减少色散的计算技术。最后，他们正在探索多孔管的使用（其中径向流动由蒸发引起）和在横向的、时间依赖的电场存在下的压力驱动的轴向流动作为实现微通道的高分离效率特性同时在较高流速下操作的方法，所以额外的-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。

With support from the Chemical Measurement & Imaging (CMI) Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Purnendu K. (Sandy) Dasgupta and his students at the University of Texas at Arlington are working to improve the performance and portability of a family of important instruments known as chromatographs. These instruments are widely used for separating the constituents of complex mixtures, enabling further analysis of the separated components. The underlying science of chromatography is critical for applications such as assuring the purity of reagents used in the semiconductor industry; environmental analysis (including monitoring reactive pollutants that cannot survive a long trip to the lab); monitoring water disinfection byproducts; manufacturing pharmaceuticals; and monitoring food safety. The Dasgupta group is working to make such instruments easily field-portable (small, lightweight, low-power, and low-cost) without compromising their separation capabilities. The aim is on-site measurement in such contexts as a physician’s office or patient's bedside; industrial troubleshooting; and water-monitoring in submarines and even in the international space station. Through involvement of students ranging from junior- and senior-level high school interns through postdoctoral fellows, Professor Dasgupta is also addressing the high demand for people trained to use these techniques. As he develops new instruments and techniques, he is incorporating them into laboratory curricula and working with instrument-makers for commercialization.The Dasgupta group is using moldable ion-exchange polymers developed in the previous NSF-funded project to make ion transport-driven nonmechanical nL/min - uL/min pumps and molded microchannels to provide ultra-miniature suppressors and eluent generators. Open-channel columns with helical and 2D/3D serpentine geometries are being systematically investigated for their separations capabilities. These columns can be fabricated by 3D printing and near-IR laser machining, making them inexpensive and amenable to mass production. The team is exploring direct photothermal and multireflection absorption measurements for sensitive detection, as well as computational techniques to reduce dispersion. Finally, they are exploring the use of porous tubes (where radial flow is induced by evaporation) and pressure-driven axial flow in the presence of a transverse, time-dependent, electric field as approaches to achieving the high separation efficiencies characteristic of microchannels while operating at higher flow rates, so that extra-column dispersion requirements are lessened.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.