Development of a nanoparticle-based sensing platform for waterborne ionic polymers.

采矿、修路和骨料洗涤等工业作业导致污水中悬浮颗粒浓度较高。由于悬浮颗粒尺寸较小，不会迅速沉降，很容易在流动的水中长距离输送。使用大型沉淀池是最常用的处理方法，用于在排放到自然水域之前清除排水中的悬浮沉积物。在排放到环境之前，通常需要通过化学混凝和絮凝(例如，主要是阳离子聚合物絮凝剂)进行二级处理，以去除这些悬浮颗粒。这是因为已知水中高浓度的悬浮颗粒(在科学文献中称为总悬浮沉积物、总悬浮固体或TSS)会对包括鱼类在内的许多水生生物造成不利影响。因此，对于从工业废水中去除TSS，特别是当它们排放到相对清澈、含鱼的山间溪流中时，有严格的监管指导方针。开发一种简单、坚固且经济高效的技术来准确测量工业和天然水中阳离子聚合物的浓度，对于以后投放聚合物和缓解聚合物的污染是绝对必要的。在这个项目中，阿尔伯塔大学的研究人员将与Clearflow Inc.的工作人员合作，研究基于纳米材料的光学方法的可行性，并开发方法和标准协议来测量基于光学的技术对多种不同聚合物的有效性。

Industrial operations such as mining, road building and aggregate washing result in high concentrations of suspended particles in effluent waters. Due to their small size, the suspended particles do not settle rapidly and are easily transported over long distances in flowing water. The use of large settling ponds is the most often used treatment for removal of suspended sediments from drainage waters prior to release into natural waters. Secondary treatment by chemical coagulation and flocculation (e.g., primarily cationic polymer flocculants) is often warranted to remove these suspended particles before discharge to the environment. This is because high concentrations of suspended particles (in scientific literature referred to as total suspended sediments, total suspended solids or TSS) in water are known to cause adverse effects in many aquatic organisms, including fish. Therefore, there are strict regulatory guidelines set for the removal of TSS from industrial effluent waters, especially when they discharge into relatively clear, fish-bearing mountain streams. The development of a simple, robust and cost-effective technique to accurately measure the concentration of cationic polymer in industrial and natural waters is absolutely essential to allow for later dosing and mitigation of polymer. This project will see researchers at the University of Alberta work with staff at Clearflow Inc. to examine the feasibility of the optical based approach based upon nanomaterials and develop methods and standard protocols to measure the efficacy of optical based technique for a number of different polymers.