About the project
Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are a family of man-made substances known as ‘forever chemicals’, which persist for decades in nature. The project will use luminescent lanthanide complexes for the detection, sensing, and destruction of these environmental hazards. This PhD project will span from molecular systems to scaled-up prototype sensing devices.
The ability to detect and destroy polyfluoroalkyl substances is an area of high-importance for the benefit of human health and well-being. These so-called ‘forever chemicals’ are ubiquitous in our everyday lives in the form of non-stick coatings, cosmetics, textiles, and fire retardants. Consequently, they pervade and accumulate into waste-streams and our natural environment, including soils, human and animal tissues, and natural bodies of water. They contain highly unreactive carbon-fluorine bonds which means they take decades to break down into non-hazardous materials.
This project will focus primarily on the sensing of PFAS derivatives utilising luminescent lanthanide (rare earth) complexes. Lanthanide complexes are well-known luminescent compounds which have been used as nanomolar sensitivity probes, however applications in PFAS sensing and destruction are currently unexplored.
You will receive high-quality training in all aspects of the project, including organic synthesis and coordination chemistry, and a suite of analytical techniques: nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, photoluminescent spectroscopy, single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Furthermore, you will prepare and construct real-world microfluidic sensing devices, able to detect the presence of PFAS compounds in real-world samples such as soil and seawater.
This project is highly interdisciplinary - giving you broad research skillset – and will have long-reaching impact both academically and on the improvement of the everyday lives of the public. Furthermore, this multidisciplinary project will result in the several high-impact publications and patents.
