Optical label-free detection of carbon black nanoparticles for measurements of environment pollution.

Black carbon (soot) is an unwanted byproduct of the combustion of diesel engines and is considered to be one of the main contributors to atmospheric particulate pollution. It is thus extremely important to be able to measure the concentration of black carbon particles in the human body and understand the effects of these particles on human health. Recently, the idea of label-free optical detection of carbon black nanoparticles, which are often used to model soot, has been proposed based on their optical response to femtosecond laser illumination. The research carried out in this project will aim to further develop described technique and investigate the origin and properties of this optical response. Main topics of the following PhD project:1. To build a compact user-friendly microscopy system for detection of carbon black nanoparticles in bodily fluids (urine) ready for medical industry applications.2. Fundamental research activities in order to better understand underlying physical phenomena of broadband white light emission from CB nanoparticles under femtosecond laser excitation.

Keywords:Carbon black, nanoparticles, Spectroscopy, Optical detection

Disciplines:Analytical chemistry, Macromolecular and materials chemistry

Project type:PhD project