Photos courtesy of Elizabethtown College Flickr
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently granted a People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3) Phase I grant to an Elizabethtown College research team led by professor of chemistry Dr. Lauren Toote and professor of engineering Dr. Brenda Read-Daily. The interdisciplinary team is working on developing a cheap and effective test to determine lead levels in water that can be used at home.
The P3 grant is a competitive grant for teams of students, particularly interdisciplinary teams, working together to design a solution to a problem. The grant will provide the team with money for the next year of the project, which will be used on supplies and to travel to the TechConnect World Innovation Conference and Expo in June, 2020.
“My favorite part of the project is that it’s largely focused on students and their development, but moreso that it’s focused on having an interdisciplinary team of students,” Toote said. “We had group meetings every other week with the engineering to get the students together, and they learn more about each other’s fields and work together on a common problem, and that’s been a really cool thing to do.”
The team is developing a water quality test that is inexpensive, simple to use and could yield quick results — using this test, any person could have the results in 15 or 30 minutes, rather than needing to send samples to a lab. Although the focus of the research team at Etown is testing for lead, it could also be applied for other heavy metals in water.
“My graduate work was how you could make tools to diagnose diseases that were very easy for a general population to use and also inexpensive and cheap,” Toote said. “My mindset was how can I create science to help people and to make it very attainable. When I was thinking of a new project to start when I came here to Etown, I was looking for a project that would fit Etown. Water quality came to mind, and so I basically wanted to take those skills I learned in graduate school and create a test that could be used in a home for water quality.”
The test works by using different molecules that change color when lead is present. The molecules are put into a nanoparticle, which is then attached to a paper strip. When the strip comes into contact with lead in the water, it will change colors. Currently, the chemistry side of the team is working on affixing the nanoparticles onto the paper strip.
The engineering side of the team is developing a plastic casing for the test strip that will prevent the test from breaking easily. They’re experimenting with different kinds of biodegradable plastics, aiming to make the casing as environmentally friendly as possible.
“We’re excited to be able to work on the problem and get a really good working prototype,” Toote said.
Currently, there are four students working on the project, including seniors Michael Perzel, Donato Grimaldi and Gina Bongiovanni, and junior Rachel Molino. This summer, a couple of other students will join the project as it continues with SCARP. The team is hoping to have a functioning prototype by the end of the summer.
The team will also be able to apply for a second phase of funding, which will allow them to begin testing their design in the real world, allowing people to use the test in their homes and to optimize the test for user-friendliness.
