FII Track-2 FEC: Facilitating Ubiquitous Technology Utilizing Resilient Eco-friendly Sensors

水污染是一个普遍存在的问题。根据最近的盖洛普民意调查，地面和饮用水污染是美国人最关心的环境问题。一些最严重的污染物包括杀虫剂和重金属，如铅和砷。这些物质不仅进入我们的饮用水，而且它们在植物和动物中的积累会使许多社区的食品不安全，对人类健康产生不利影响。然而，由于人工收集程序和测量污染物的大型昂贵设备，水体通常每年只检测一次。这个项目将制造小型的、可打印的传感器，同时在现场测量有毒重金属和农药，以便在水体中进行广泛的环境监测，并测量人群中的重金属水平。该项目将招募和培训多样化的劳动力来设计、测试和生产这些新型传感器。通过与四所大学的合作，该项目将利用博伊西州立大学、路易斯安那理工大学、阿拉巴马大学伯明翰分校和阿肯色大学医学科学学院的独特技能和设施来生产和测试传感器。除了传统的K-12外展活动和招聘以增加科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的多样性外，该项目还开发了一种新颖的混合预指导研究体验（PRE Program），以招募和培训代表性不足的少数民族学生，从而加强培训并提高留用率。PRE项目将由HBCU下属的阿肯色大学派恩布拉夫分校（University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff）运营。学生将参与几个月的学习和专业发展活动，然后在其他四所大学中的一所大学进行暑期研究体验，获得必要的知识和经验，以确保STEM职业生涯的成功。此外，项目领导将与经济发展团队合作，建立制造能力，将传感器商业化，面向全球大市场，并雇用项目学员，这将扩大对该项目的投资。这些传感器有可能在未来与物联网、人工智能和消费者手机应用程序融合，为水和人群中的环境毒素提供广泛的监测和分析。这种融合将创造新的研究和商业化机会，有助于项目在奖项失效后的可持续性。该项目将推进化学和材料工程、传感器设计、环境研究和人类安全。我们的研究将产生用于微电子设备的环保，可打印的传感器油墨数据库和用于检测有毒化学品的功能化光子碳点数据库，以及用于多分析物测量的电子和光子传感器检测方法数据库。利用这项基础研究，项目团队将设计和优化经济、多分析、环保的传感器，避免或只使用极少量的贵金属。该项目将开发非侵入式人体HM传感器，用于家庭和社区筛查诊所的现场使用。传感器将被部署到有毒泄漏或持续泄漏的地区，以评估初始暴露和监测长期暴露，并衡量补救程序的进展情况。该研究项目将(1)提供对纳米复合网络涂层（nnc）新兴电化学特性的基本理解，与硅基传感器相比，nnc可以避免或只使用微量的贵金属；(2)发现NNC油墨的催化效应及其传感机理；(3)制定NNC油墨的最佳喷射打印参数；(4)探索发光碳点（CD）传感器的新型掺杂和功能化方法，包括造纸厂和塑料工业废弃物的升级回收；(5)了解功能化cd与特定重金属之间的电子能隙如何变化；(6)优化用于印刷油墨和CD传感器的多分析物检测的传感参数。这些经济的传感器将能够更广泛地使用和更频繁地监测有毒化学品，这将有助于更好地了解人类活动对环境的影响以及如何尽量减少有毒化学品对人类的传播。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。

Water pollution is a widespread problem. According to a recent Gallup Poll, ground and drinking water pollution are Americans' top environmental concerns. Some of the most serious pollutants include pesticides and heavy metals, such as lead and arsenic. These substances not only get into our drinking water, but their accumulation in plants and animals can make food unsafe in many communities, adversely affecting human health. Yet, bodies of water are often tested only once a year due to manual collection procedures and large, costly equipment to measure pollutants. This project will create small, printable sensors to simultaneously measure toxic heavy metals and pesticides on-site to enable widespread environmental surveillance in bodies of water, and to measure levels of heavy metals in human populations. The project will recruit and train a diverse workforce to design, test, and produce these new types of sensors. Through collaborations at four universities, the project will leverage the unique skills and facilities at Boise State University, Louisiana Tech University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to produce and test the sensors. In addition to traditional K-12 outreach activities and recruitment to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), this project has developed a novel, hybrid pre-mentoring research experience (PRE Program) to recruit and train underrepresented minority students that will enhance training and increase retention. The PRE Program will be run by the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, an HBCU institution. Students will engage in learning and professional development activities for several months prior to working in one of the other four universities for a summer research experience, gaining essential knowledge and experience to ensure success in a STEM career. Furthermore, the project leadership will work with economic development teams to establish manufacturing capabilities to commercialize the sensors for large global markets and to employ project trainees, which will amplify investment in this project. The sensors have the potential to enable a future convergence with the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and consumer cell phone apps to provide widespread surveillance and analysis of environmental toxins in water and in human populations. This convergence will create new research and commercialization opportunities contributing to the sustainability of the project beyond the life of the award.The project will advance chemical and materials engineering, sensor design, environmental research, and human safety. Our research will produce databases of eco-friendly, printable sensor inks for microelectronic devices and functionalized photonic carbon dots for detection of toxic chemicals, as well as electronic and photonic sensor detection methods for multianalyte measurements. Using this fundamental research, the project team will design and optimize economical, multianalyte, eco-friendly sensors that avoid or use only a minute amount of precious metals. The project will develop non-invasive, human HM sensors for on-site use in the home and in community screening clinics. Sensors will be deployed to areas with toxic spills or persistent leakage to evaluate initial exposure and monitor exposure over time, and to gage the progress of remediation procedures. This research project will (1) provide a fundamental understanding of the emergent electrochemical properties of nanocomposite network coatings (NNCs) that avoid or use only minute amounts of precious metals versus Si-based sensors; (2) discover catalytic effects of NNC inks and their sensing mechanisms; (3) develop optimal jet printing parameters for NNC inks; (4) explore novel dopant and functionalization methods for luminescent carbon dot (CD) sensors, including upcycling of papermill and plastics industry waste; (5) learn how the electronic energy gap shifts between functionalized CDs and specific heavy metals; and (6) optimize sensing parameters for multianalyte detection for printed ink and CD sensors. These economical sensors will enable wider use and more frequent monitoring of toxic chemicals which will facilitate a greater understanding of the impact of human activity in the environment and how to minimize the spread of toxic chemicals to humans.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.