Investigation of Rare Earth Fluorescence based Gas Detection Instrumentation

Rare-earth-doped luminescent materials with sharp & narrow emissions, large Stokes shifts and long excited-state decay times have been excellent optical materials for photonic devices, finding applications in sensing. This research will focus on development of a trace gas detection system based on the rare-earth doped nanomaterials.

Award

MRes | MPhil | PhD | MSc by Research

Start Date

Usually February and October - at individual School's discretion

Research Opportunities

Summary

This project is in collaboration with ESPRC and several universities and aims to develop advanced, sensitive technologies for detecting trace species of gas. Currently, trace gas sensing is carried out using bulky, expensive systems which restricts their use case beyond labs and other significant projects etc.

Common sensitive gas detection technologies are cost prohibitive and of a significant size which restricts the use case, there is a growing need to develop inexpensive and small systems to precisely quantify the concentration of a given gas in applications such as air pollution and chemical weapons detection, greenhouse gas emission, etc.

The objective of the study is to investigate how rare earth-based fluorescence technologies can be applied to create novel sensing systems for trace gases on the molecular level for such applications covered. Rare earths, such as Lanthanides in the F-block of the periodic table have been long studied for their optical properties particularly for their compelling fluorescent properties, these elements need to be studied and critically appraised for consideration in the new system. These studies and experiments will lead to development of the entire bespoke sensing system from the sensing element onwards with a supporting ecosystem of technologies to render it viable in practical scenarios. The project therefore will require simulations and experiments to be developed to gather evidence.