Organic Semiconductor Trace-Chemical Sensors for Environmental Monitoring and Security Applications

Graham Turnbull^a, Ross Gillanders^a, James Glackin^a, Edward Ogugu^a, Ifor Samuel^a, Janja Filipi^b, Nikola Kezic^c

^aOrganic Semiconductor Centre, SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, U.K.

^bDeptment of Ecology, Agronomy and Aquaculture, University of Zadar, Zadar, Croatia, Ulica Mihovila Pavlinovića, Zadar, Croatia

^cH.C.R.-C.T.R.O. d.o.o., Sortina 1d, HR-10020 Zagreb, Croatia

Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MATSUS)
Proceedings of Materials for Sustainable Development Conference (MAT-SUS) (NFM22)

#OPTONEXT - Next Gen Semiconductors for Optoelectronics

Barcelona, Spain, 2022 October 24th - 28th

Organizers: Paul Shaw and Mike Hambsch

Invited Speaker, Graham Turnbull, presentation 044
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.nfm.2022.044
Publication date: 11th July 2022

Detection of trace levels of hazardous chemicals is an important challenge for environmental monitoring, homeland security and humanitarian landmine clearance. Organic semiconductor sensors, which exploit a fluorescence quenching mechanism in the presence of certain target analyte molecules, offer an attractive approach for extremely sensitive detection. In this presentation we will describe how molecular design and thin-film structure influence both the microscopic physics, and the sensor performance including their sensitivity, speed of response and recovery, and potential for discrimination between target analytes.

We will also present progress and potential in developing applications of these sensors in-field conditions for humanitarian demining and environmental monitoring. For example, the ability to detect the presence of explosives across an area of interest would be of particular use in technical surveys of suspected minefields. We show that these sensors can be used to detect nano-gram level quantities of nitroaromatic (TNT-like) molecules, and combine them for the first time with a novel preconcentration approach to detect buried explosives. Initial field trials on a test minefield will be presented, in which the sensors are used to detect trace explosives collected by colonies of foraging honeybees. We will also describe how these sensors can provide a new approach for early warning of environmental pollution events in water bodies.

References:

[1] Gillanders RN, Glackin JME, Babić Z, Muštra M, Simić M, Kezić N et al. Biomonitoring for wide area surveying in landmine detection using honeybees and optical sensing. Chemosphere. 2021, 273, 129646.

[2] Gillanders RN, Glackin JME, Filipi J, Kezic N, Samuel IDW, Turnbull GA. Preconcentration techniques for trace explosive sensing. Science of the Total Environment. 2019, 658, 650-658.

[3] Gillanders RN, Campbell IA, Glackin JME, Samuel IDW, Turnbull GA. Ormosil-coated conjugated polymers for the detection of explosives in aqueous environments. Talanta. 2018, 179, 426-429.

Acknowledgements:

This project has received funding from NATO Science for Peace & Security under grant agreement MYP G5355, and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under EP/K503940/1.

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