With support from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program, and co-funding from the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research, Profs. Rudolf Seitz and Roy Planalp from the University of New Hampshire, in collaboration with Prof. Shawn Burdette from the University of Connecticut, are developing and characterizing a new approach to preparing co-polymer based ratiometric fluorimetric indicators for metal ions. The approach separates complexation from fluorescence, thereby allowing preparation of ratiometric indicators for important metal ions like Cu(II), Pb(II), Fe(III), etc., which normally quench fluorescence.
This project will provide a new approach to measuring levels of toxic metals in municipal waters and will have a rapid and positive impact on public safety because of an established relationship with Envirosystems, Inc., a Womens Business Enterprise-certified company that can rapidly develop laboratory research for practical applications. The project will involve participants and trainees at many levels including high school, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral, and will involve underrepresented groups and women. New students beginning on this project will be assigned a senior graduate student or postdoctoral mentor, who will share mentoring duties with the PI.
The award "Collaborative Research: New Ratiometric Fluorescent Indicators for Copper" was funded to facilitate the measurement of copper concentrations in waste water. Copper is one of the pollutants requiring remediation that is commonly found in municipal effluents. Polymer-based systems that use fluorescence have the potential to be both a more sensitive technique than those currently used, but could also be reusable and deployable in areas outside of water treatment facilities. In addition, the general approach could readily be adapted to measure concentrations of other toxic metal ions such as mercury or lead. The detection technology is based on architecture changes in polymeric structures that are influenced by temperature and charge on the macromolecular backbone. When a polymeric material expand on contracts, the distance between attached fluorescent molecules changes, which leads to a change in the color of the light being emitted. These signal changes can be extrapolated to the concentration of copper. Construction of the polymer sensors requires several steps. As part of the overall collaboration, the Worcester Polytechnic institute team prepared the copper-binding component of the sensor. These small molecules needed to bind copper as well as contain a functional group to allow its incorporation into the polymeric system.
