PCET Quantum-Tunneling Electrospun Nanofiber Scaffolds for Heavy-Metal Capture and Resource Recovery

PROBLEM: Electrospun fiber mats embed biosorbent in a high-surface-area network, but metal ions must travel through fiber pores before reaching a binding site, and the binding step itself may be a coupled proton–electron transfer. In cold water, tunneling can change that step while pore transport stays slow, so a mat that looks fast at room temperature may capture differently in the field. Recovery planning needs a model that keeps pore transport and coupled transfer as separate, tracked factors.

SOLUTION: IBM Cloud Ideas would host a cloud model for PCET nanofiber capture mats, separating fiber geometry, biosorbent loading, and coupled-transfer conditions in the model inputs. The capability would attach regeneration and reuse accounting to each mat design and prefer low-temperature, water-based fabrication steps in its recommendations. It provides a modelling service, not a capture guarantee.

EVIDENCE BASIS: DOCUMENTED — PCET moves protons and electrons together, with tunneling contributing at low temperature; electrospun scaffolds are high-surface-area fiber mats with biosorbent embedded; DFT predicts surface-group binding and biosorption is validated via batch isotherms. Source: Hohenberg–Kohn 1964; Kohn–Sham 1965; Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1998.