Fast, quantitative analysis of trichloroethylene (TCE) in water

 描述(由申请人提供)：地下水被氯化化合物污染是对公众健康的重大威胁。含氯化合物--从杀虫剂到工业溶剂--通过自然途径降解很慢。它们的广泛存在是值得注意的；例如，工业溶剂三氯乙烯(TCE)已在超过1400个能源部设施、23个能源部设施以及全国数千个商业和住宅场所检测到，其中包括60%的超级基金场所。虽然各种补救技术正在研究中，但所有地点都将受益于ppb级的快速监测。这些化合物以极低的十亿分之一(Ppb)浓度广泛存在。与此同时，我们的水源受到许多其他污染物的威胁，这些污染物的监管限制在ppb级。目前可用的实验室工具可以测量这些非常低的浓度，这些工具昂贵、复杂和笨重。它们无法实现充分监测国家水源所需的快速、频繁、经济和基础广泛的测试类型。下一代技术能够在不到五分钟的时间内以低于ppb的速度测试水样中的各种化合物，这将极大地提高水监测器和研究人员的能力。这种能力反过来将使自来水供应商能够增加监测频率和实施补救措施，并将使研究人员能够专注于获取更多数据和更好地了解慢性接触对健康的影响。OndaVia打算开发所需的先进技术。对于这里设想的多相SBIR项目，OndaVia建议开发、原型、验证一种快速分析仪器，并将其商业化，该仪器旨在使用表面增强拉曼光谱(SERS)测量水溶液中的化合物。该仪器依赖于OndaVia经过验证的专有SERS检测技术，该技术既灵敏又定量，因此是一种易于使用的快速分析仪器，灵敏度仅为十亿分之几。第一阶段的具体目标是证明1)使用我们独特的检测器检测5 ppb的三氯乙烯的可行性，以及2)确定0-到100 ppb的三氯乙烯的定量校准曲线。第一阶段的成功将为第二阶段的后续工作奠定基础，重点是充分展示/验证我们原型系统的能力，目标是在现场样本中实现5 ppb的检测水平，为与私营部门投资者/行业合作伙伴进行“第三阶段”商业开发做准备。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Groundwater contamination by chlorinated compounds is a significant risk to public health. Chlorine-containing compounds-ranging from pesticides to industrial solvents-are slow to degrade through natural pathways. Their wide-ranging presence is notable; for example, the industrial solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) has been detected at over fourteen-hundred DOD installations, twenty-three DOE installations, and thousands of commercial and residential sites nationwide, including 60% of Superfund sites. Although various remediation techniques are under study, all sites would benefit from rapid, ppb-level monitoring. These compounds are widely present at minute, low-part-per-billion (ppb) concentrations. At the same time, our water sources are threatened by numerous other pollutants with regulatory limits at ppb-levels. Currently available laboratory-based tools that ca measure these very low concentrations are expensive, complex, and cumbersome instruments. They do not enable the types of rapid, frequent, economical and broad-based testing needed to adequately monitor the nation's water sources. Next-generation capabilities to test water samples at sub-ppb for a wide-variety of compounds in fewer than five minutes would vastly improve the capabilities of water monitors and researchers. This ability will in turn allow water suppliers to increase monitoring frequency and to implement remediation steps, and will allow researchers to focus on obtaining more data and a better understanding of the health effects of chronic exposure. OndaVia intends to develop the advanced technology that is needed. For the multi-phase SBIR project envisioned here, OndaVia proposes to develop, prototype, validate, and commercialize a rapid- analysis instrument designed to measure compounds in aqueous solution using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). This instrument relies upon OndaVia's proven and proprietary SERS detection technology that is both sensitive and quantitative, resulting in an easy-to-use, rapid-analysis instrument with few-parts-per-billion sensitivity. Specific Phase I Aims are focused on proving the feasibility of 1) detecting TCE at 5-ppb using our unique detector, and 2) determining a quantitative calibration curve for TCE over 0- to 100-ppb. Phase I success will set the stage for follow-on Phase II work focused on fully demonstrating/validating the capabilities of our prototype system with the goal of achieving 5-ppb detection levels in field samples in preparation for "Phase III" commercial development with private- sector investors/industry partners.