PLEASE NOTE: Application deadline date 08 Jan 2024. Applications are no longer being accepted for this project
Project Overview
Colourimetric/fluorescent chemical sensors offer rapid and simple detection tools for chemical species including metal ions. This project examines the immobilization of supramolecular ion binders into hydrogels which provide a response to metal ions, forming a novel smartphone readable dipstick sensor for rapidly detecting the concentration of metals in seawater.
Project Description
Metal ions are ubiquitous in seawater, however elevated concentrations of metals such as lead, mercury and copper are harmful to aquatic ecosystems. Current detection methods require expensive specialist equipment and skilled personnel, which is problematic both for their long-term sensing and sensing in low-resource settings, and for fully understanding/quantifying their environmental behaviour.
In this project, you will build on previous pioneering work by the project supervisors to design and synthesise novel classes of chemical sensors that can selectively bind to metal ions triggering a colour change and/or the activation of fluorescence.1-3 You will be trained to analyse the response and the limit of detection of these novel chemical sensors towards individual metal ions (including Cr, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, Hg and Pb) using various spectroscopic techniques. These will then be immobilized into polymeric hydrogels, fabricating a series of state-of-the-art sensing materials.
You will pattern these novel materials to fabricate devices capable of acting as gel or ‘gel-on-paper’ based dipstick sensors. This array can be arranged as a basic ‘QR code’ which can be scanned with a smartphone to give an instant quantitative read-out of water quality of metal ion concentration. The new devices will be tested against real world samples to determine the applicability of this technology to measuring metal ions (a) in estuarine and coastal waters, and (b) in low resource settings. Demonstrating the effectiveness of this strategy will open doors to these sensors being incorporated into a range of environmental monitoring applications, in seawater and beyond.
The INSPIRE DTP programme provides comprehensive personal and professional development training alongside extensive opportunities for students to expand their multi-disciplinary outlook through interactions with a wide network of academic, research and industrial/policy partners. The student will be registered at the University of Southampton and hosted at the Schools of Chemistry and Ocean and Earth Science. Specific training will include:
In-situ chemical sensing techniques for metal ions, and their calibration
Organic synthesis techniques
UV-vis and fluorescence spectroscopy
Hydrogel fabrication and characterization
Sampling and deployment techniques
Dipstick sensor device design, fabrication and testing
Binding titrations (using NMR and optical techniques)
As well as training in soft-skills including:
Scientific writing
Oral and poster presentation
Working with interdisciplinary collaborators
[1] A Colorimetric Chemosensor Based on a Nozoe Azulene That Detects Fluoride in Aqueous/Alcoholic Media, Lloyd C Murfin, Kirstie Chiang, George T Williams, Catherine L Lyall, A Toby A Jenkins, Jannis Wenk, Tony D James, Simon E Lewis, Front. Chem. 2021, 8, 10, 10.3389/fchem.2020.00010
[2] Novel DGT Configurations for the Assessment of Bioavailable Plutonium, Americium, and Uranium in Marine and Freshwater Environment, Joshua D. Chaplin
, Phillip E. Warwick, Andrew B. Cundy, François Bochud, and Pascal Froidevaux, Anal. Chem. 2021, 93, 35, 11937-11945
[3] On-chip cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy using a white light-emitting diode and polymer mirrors, Cathy M. Rushworth, Gareth Jones, Martin Fischlechner, Emma Walton and Hywel Morgan, Lab Chip, 2015, 15, 711-717
