Recently, 20 million gallons of untreated wastewater were released into Florida's Tampa Bay during Hurricane Hermine, and 215 million gallons of slightly radioactive water entered the Floridian Aquifer through a sinkhole opening. In Florida, these events have caused considerable concern from local residents and state officials, as have similar events across the country. With the advent of a multitude of new materials, it may be time to examine the ways in which our water is treated and our ability to treat surge conditions. This project seeks to develop and deploy a new class of porous organic polymers which have high capacity and selectivity to rapidly remove heavy metal contaminants well below parts per million level standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The project will engineer porosity and surface chemistry of porous organic polymers to clean inorganic heavy metal contaminants from both surface water and wastewater. Porous organic polymers are robust, chemically and thermally stable, scalable, and modular, with very high surface area. The modularity of these polymers allows for a molecular-level tuning of the pore structure and surface chemistry that allows for engineered site-specificity of binding sites that target the heavy metal contaminants. Recent data shows these new materials offer a significant increase in capacity relative to benchmark materials, with a rapid removal of mercury and other heavy metal ions. This project will advance the concept by exploring rational design of these porous polymers with different topologies by customizing the monomer with various binding groups. The objectives of the project include design, synthesis, and characterization, followed by assessment of these materials to remove inorganic contaminants from water, and thirdly, development of materials with multiple recognition sites for removal of complex inorganic contaminants. The work will impact wastewater treatment, including municipal water, as well as the nuclear, fracking, and mining industries. The PIs will continue to mentor underrepresented groups in their laboratory and present a summer workshop and a web page regarding materials, energy, and the environment for first-generation college students.
