Sen­sor Ar­rays using Lu­mi­ne­s­cent Metal-​Organic Frame­works for the Op­ti­cal De­tec­tion of Ex­plo­si­ve Va­pours and Toxic Sub­stances - SAL­MOS

Pro­ject sum­ma­ry

Pro­tec­ting the so­cie­ty from ha­zar­dous gases and ex­plo­si­ve ma­te­ri­als is an im­portant need that may be ad­dres­sed if ver­sa­ti­le, cheap and user-​friendly de­tec­tion de­vices are de­ve­lo­ped. The pro­ject SAL­MOS aims at the de­ve­lo­p­ment of op­ti­cal sen­sors based on pho­to­lu­mi­ne­s­cent metal-​organic frame­works (LMOFs) pro­ces­sed into films and dis­tri­bu­t­ed ar­rays for the de­tec­tion of ex­plo­si­ves and toxic sub­stances in the gas phase. En­han­ced sen­sing per­for­mance will be achie­ved by using im­pro­ved ap­proa­ches for the im­mo­bi­liza­ti­on or di­rect gro­wing of the MOF crys­tals into spe­ci­fic sub­stra­tes like po­ly­me­ric ma­trix mem­bra­nes or na­nost­ruc­tu­red metal oxide films. The com­bi­na­ti­on of selec­ted sen­si­ti­ve MOFs as­sem­bled into ar­rays or groups of sen­sors will en­able for selec­ti­ve ana­ly­te re­co­gni­ti­on ex­ploi­ting their (multi)lu­mi­ne­s­cent re­spon­se span­ning across the vi­si­ble spec­tral range. SAL­MOS will focus on ex­plo­si­ve va­pours (ni­tro­aro­ma­tics, TATP), toxic gases (NO2, SO2) and other toxic vo­la­ti­le or­ga­nic com­po­unds.