Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NEMILIES (NanoElectroMechanical Infrared Light for Industrial and Environmental Sensing)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-06-01 do 2023-05-31
In 2012, 13% of all deaths in the EU were attributable to environmental pollution, e.g. in the form of aerosols. Another major source of pollution ubiquitous in our modern society is plastics. Their long-term accumulation and fragmentation into nanoplastics, which can leach toxic, carcinogenic, or endocrine disrupting additives, is cause for increased concern. Simultaneously, more and more nanoparticles are used in drug delivery or as therapeutics.
There currently exist no methods that allow for the sampling of extremely low amount of materials, such as aerosols, nanoplastics, or nanopharmaceuticals, and simultaneously provide characterization data for their identification.
Current state-of-the-art methods require environmental samples to be brought back to the laboratory, extracted from filters and further analyzed with specialized equipment and personnel or very low concentrations of samples to be analyzed for several hours in order to obtain a stable signal. The delay in obtaining an answer can have serious detrimental health, economic, and societal effects. Furthermore, the elaborate analytical procedure massively limits the amount of samples taken and mainly reduces them to spot checks only. Therefore, contaminations of various kinds are not detected at all.
But what if we could detect and identify airborne pollution and nanoparticles directly in the field, workplace, or home and in real time? What if we could identify the sources and extent of nanoplastic pollution at remote locations? What if we could speed up nanopharmaceuticals drug discovery and improve quality control? ƒ
In the NEMILIES project, we applied the nanomechanical point of view to the world of optics to create a radically new nanomaterial and nanoparticle detector. Our detector is an innovative Mid- to Far-IR (also known as THz) detector based on unique nanoelectromechanical sensing (NEMS) technology, which allows the sampling and chemical analysis of nano-sized samples available in limited quantities. Our innovative technology fills a methodology and technology gap by bringing frontrunner ultra-sensitive characterization methods to the analysis of aerosols, nanoplastics, nanopharmaceuticals, thin films, biomolecules, and more.
There currently exist no methods that allow for the sampling of extremely low amount of materials, such as aerosols, nanoplastics, or nanopharmaceuticals, and simultaneously provide characterization data for their identification.
Current state-of-the-art methods require environmental samples to be brought back to the laboratory, extracted from filters and further analyzed with specialized equipment and personnel or very low concentrations of samples to be analyzed for several hours in order to obtain a stable signal. The delay in obtaining an answer can have serious detrimental health, economic, and societal effects. Furthermore, the elaborate analytical procedure massively limits the amount of samples taken and mainly reduces them to spot checks only. Therefore, contaminations of various kinds are not detected at all.
But what if we could detect and identify airborne pollution and nanoparticles directly in the field, workplace, or home and in real time? What if we could identify the sources and extent of nanoplastic pollution at remote locations? What if we could speed up nanopharmaceuticals drug discovery and improve quality control? ƒ
In the NEMILIES project, we applied the nanomechanical point of view to the world of optics to create a radically new nanomaterial and nanoparticle detector. Our detector is an innovative Mid- to Far-IR (also known as THz) detector based on unique nanoelectromechanical sensing (NEMS) technology, which allows the sampling and chemical analysis of nano-sized samples available in limited quantities. Our innovative technology fills a methodology and technology gap by bringing frontrunner ultra-sensitive characterization methods to the analysis of aerosols, nanoplastics, nanopharmaceuticals, thin films, biomolecules, and more.
Our overall goal is to bring the NEMILIES project technology to maturity and achieve market readiness, thereby successfully transitioning our ERC PoC technology to market. The first half of the NEMILIES project was dedicated to the production of a minimum value prototype (MVP) using artisanal fabrication methods and to its validation in the laboratory and with external users. Initial prototypes were entirely fabricated at TU Wien and went through several prototyping-user validation loops to improve problem-solution and solution-market fit. Each feedback loop resulted in several major changes and improvements to the prototypes. The final artisanal prototype can be hyphenated easily with a commercially available Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer for rapid chemical characterization. The prototype was validated for the analysis of ultrafine aerosols, nanoplastics, thin films, proteins, nanopharmaceuticals, and semi-volatile organic compounds.
The small size of ultrafine aerosol particles and nanoplastics facilitates their transport by air, through our waterways, and in the food chain. However, it also makes their sampling and chemical characterization extremely challenging. Even at very high number concentrations, the actual mass of nanoparticles in an environmental sample will be very small due to their extremely small volume making detection and identification challenging with traditional analytical methods. At the moment, one of the only way to characterize nanoparticles is through the use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) or atomic force microscopy (AFM). However, this instrumentation is not only extremely expensive, the scanning process to analyze each nanoparticle one by one is very time-consuming. As a result, environmental nanoparticles are often characterized only by their size and particle count. New innovative technology is required to face the challenges of our modern society.
Internal validation in the laboratory and with selected users showed eoutstanding sensitivity for the bulk analysis of nanoparticles in the 10-500 nm size range by NEMS-FTIR with EMILIE. The EMILIE technology was extended without any modifications to the analysis of nanoparticle-based drug formulations. Nanopharmaceuticals have proven their efficacy in treating complex diseases, R&D by pharma and biotechcompanies to develop nanotech-based drugs is constantly increasing. We have successfully shown the NEMS-FTIR characterization of nanoparticle-encapsulated proteins with EMILIE. In addition to the analysis of nanoparticles, we have for the first time integrated thermal desorption (TD) directly with NEMS-IR. This new feature opens up the doors to an array of new possibilities where complex samples with different vapour pressures can be desorbed sequentially from the surface of the detector for easier identification and physicochemical characterisation.
These results fill a pressing methodological and technological gap in the analysis of environmental nanoparticles. However, the policy gap in terms of environmental nanoparticle regulations will hinder uptake of this new technology by both environmental monitoring services and agencies as well as by industrial polluters.
Internal validation in the laboratory and with selected users showed eoutstanding sensitivity for the bulk analysis of nanoparticles in the 10-500 nm size range by NEMS-FTIR with EMILIE. The EMILIE technology was extended without any modifications to the analysis of nanoparticle-based drug formulations. Nanopharmaceuticals have proven their efficacy in treating complex diseases, R&D by pharma and biotechcompanies to develop nanotech-based drugs is constantly increasing. We have successfully shown the NEMS-FTIR characterization of nanoparticle-encapsulated proteins with EMILIE. In addition to the analysis of nanoparticles, we have for the first time integrated thermal desorption (TD) directly with NEMS-IR. This new feature opens up the doors to an array of new possibilities where complex samples with different vapour pressures can be desorbed sequentially from the surface of the detector for easier identification and physicochemical characterisation.
These results fill a pressing methodological and technological gap in the analysis of environmental nanoparticles. However, the policy gap in terms of environmental nanoparticle regulations will hinder uptake of this new technology by both environmental monitoring services and agencies as well as by industrial polluters.