Problem Statement:
Rapid industrialization has led to widespread pollution, impacting human life profoundly. Heavy metal ions permeate the environment through various means: air, water, and soil. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates lead exposure alone causes 540,000 deaths and 13.9 million years of healthy life lost globally. Hence, early detection of toxic heavy metals is vital.Traditional detection methods suffer from laborious sample prep, bulky equipment, and slow data processing. There is an urgent need for innovative, rapid, and sensitive approaches to overcome these limitations and address heavy metal exposure's health risks.Photonics technology, particularly photonic sensing, offers advantages for in-situ, real-time, multiplex analysis in diverse bioapplications. This project carried out research on fiber optical sensing for light-matter interactions aiming at heavy metal detection and explored novel microstructures, mechanical adjustments, and 2D-nanomaterial coatings for enhanced sensitivity. These include tilted fiber gratings (TFGs) for highly sensitivity to surrounding changes and 2D materials.
Societal impact:
Multiplexed heavy metal detection remains a challenge due to flexibility, specificity, sensitivity, and selectivity constraints. Addressing this challenge requires continuous research and this contribution of this project will produce significant societal impacts including food security and environment to name a few only. For environment , this technology can help safeguard ecosystems, wildlife, and public health by providing early warnings of environmental hazards and ensuring regulatory compliance. For food safety, thie technology will enhance food safety by detecting contaminants, pathogens, and spoilage indicators in food products. This ensures the production of safer and healthier food, reducing the risk of foodborne illnesses and promoting public well-being.
Objectives:
NanoIP-BioS aims to:
1. Enhance photonics and biophotonics expertise.
2. Develop novel photo-bio architectures for improved light-matter interaction.
3. Integrate advanced 2D materials with photonic components.
4. Enable ultrahigh sensitivity, selectivity, label-free, real-time, rapid detection techniques.
5. Implement biochemical detection for environmental monitoring and protection.
