This project is to acquire a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer that will help identify unknown chemicals pollutants and mixtures of chemicals in environmental samples, such as air, soil and personal exposure monitors. The instrument will be housed in the Duke Center for Environmental Exposomics. This equipment will serve as a resource to researchers and students spanning several departments on campus as well as for researchers within the central North Carolina region. Researchers will be able to submit samples to the facility manager, who will use the mass spectrometer to identify unknown chemicals in the samples with greater accuracy and confidence than has previously been available. The instrument will also be used to develop a new course to enhance graduate education in environmental and analytical chemistry. The course will teach students how to interrogate chemical structure databases using data generated by the mass spectrometer to make positive identification of chemicals, and to learn more about their sources, production volumes and fate in the environment.
Acquisition of a high-resolution mass spectrometer will support structural elucidation of complex mixtures of unknown volatile and semi-volatile organic chemicals in the environment under study by researchers in central North Carolina. Access to this instrument will significantly advance research investigations on the fate, transport, and transformation of chemical pollutants found in complex mixtures in environmental samples that are the focus of several research centers on campus, including the Duke Center for Environmental Exposomics, the Duke Superfund Research Center, and the Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology. The research projects outlined within this proposal share a focus on identifying complex mixtures of unknown or previously unidentified contaminants in environmental samples, which has been an obstacle to advancing research on chemical contaminants in the ambient environment. Major users of this instrument will engage in research to investigate not only exposure of environmentally relevant mixtures, but also research to improve and design sensors to detect contaminants at low levels and develop remediation tools and techniques to reduce the ecological risks associated with these contaminants. Seldom have such high-performance mass spectrometers been directly available in an academic setting, and acquisition of this instrument would enable Duke to become the only institution within the U.S. southeastern region to offer this support for environmental science research.
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.
