Skip to main content
Menu

Professor Jin-Chong Tan awarded prestigious European Research Council Proof of Concept Grant

To engineer a revolutionary sensor device exploiting a novel photoluminescent nanomaterial discovered in his research group

Technology that senses and responds to light and chemicals, changing colour depending on the substance detected

Exfoliated nanosheet materials exhibiting tuneable photoluminescent properties useful for engineering novel sensors that could detect a range of physical and chemical perturbations.

Professor of Nanoscale Engineering Jin-Chong Tan has been awarded a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept Grant 2020 to engineer a revolutionary sensor device exploiting a novel photoluminescent nanomaterial, discovered in his research group at the Department of Engineering Science.

The challenge is to achieve low concentration ppm-level detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Such a compact sensor could be deployed for toxic VOC detection in industry and sustainability applications, or, for use in diabetes diagnostics in the personal healthcare and biomedical sectors. Previously, none of the commercial VOC sensors in the market could fulfil the requirements of high sensitivity, high selectivity, and low cost all at once.

ERC Proof of Concept funding is made available to establish proof of concept of an idea generated in the course of an existing ERC-funded project, for example to establish viability or identify technical issues. The LUMIVOCS project will de-risk the proposed technology by delivering proof-of-concept data needed to move forward towards a commercial application. The project will involve the engineering and prototyping of a compact VOC sensor device and evaluation of detailed sensor performance. The research will address key challenges such as manufacturability, sensor lifetime, and mechanical resilience. The project will be conducted in collaboration with two industrial partners who will provide technical input and lend direction to the work for future commercialisation.

 

Recent publications related to this project:

More about the ERC Proof of Concept Grants

Multifunctional Materials & Composites (MMC) Laboratory