Carbon nanomaterials Functionalized with Organic Conjugated Polymers as Low Cost and High-Performance Chemical, Gas and Bio-sensors for Applications in Environment and Healthcare Fields

Structured organo-inorganic nanomaterials are crucial in a number of critical applications, such as in nanoscale electronics, templates for biomedical devices, drug delivery systems and high efficiency membranes among others. Copolymers of two or more chemically different polymer segments, connected by covalent linkage, help increase versatility and flexibility of the composite material. During this project we will establish innovative protocols for the design and synthesis of nanocomposites containing carbon nanomaterials (e.g graphene, GO, CNTs, nanodiamond) dispersed in polymeric materials. To achieve our aims, we will investigate the design, synthesis and characterisation of functional composites based on grafting using conjugated polymers. These composites will be designed in conjunction with living radical polymerisation and composite formation methodologies to tailor the product properties. The key outcomes of this project will be an understanding of the molecular design, the structure-property relation of product and scaling to harness the unique properties of such nanocomposites based on organo-inorganic hybrid nanostructured materials. The sensitivity of the new, fast-responding nanostructured materials will be tested for detecting selected chemicals and gases such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), pesticides (organo-phosphates), nitrogenous compounds, alcohols, acetone, organic amines, acids and bases, NOx, CO, HCl, Cl2, N2H4, H2S, NH4, LPG gas, highly toxic heavy metal ions (e.g. ions of mercury, lead, cadmium, copper, nickel, cobalt, etc) and biomolecules (e.g. dopamine, ascorbic acid, glucose, DNA, RNA, nucleic acids, genes, cholesterol, hydrogen peroxide, etc) and other bioanalytes (monitoring of bacterial, E.coli, fungal pathogens, with quick response. These novel low cost and high performance sensors would be of value through extending their sensing capabilities for biological materials.