Project description
Seeing the light in murky liquids helps characterise their constituents
When scientists try to identify the constituents of turbid liquids, like a house of mirrors, the light of current spectrophotometers scatters off the milieu, making measurement impossible or loaded with errors. Current methods to solve the scattering issues require time-consuming dilution techniques that alter the original sample. Further, when not only the constituents but their concentrations are of interest, as in many environmental and medical applications, these techniques are insufficient. The EU-funded Modu-Spectro project will explore the commercialisation of their innovative technology that promises faster, more accurate and reliable analysis of turbid liquids while leaving the sample intact. This technology will improve capabilities for current applications and open the door to a wealth of new ones.
Objective
The ability to analyse compounds within turbid/scattering liquids is very important in fields related to Environmental monitoring, Medical analysis, Pharmaceutical testing and Food processing. However, for turbid liquids that include dirty water, blood, milk as well as unfiltered beer, wine, oils etc, unwanted multiple scattering effects occur, preventing any measurement or introducing large errors. Thus, current commercially available spectrophotometers are not capable of measuring within such liquids and time-consuming dilution procedures are required (when possible), ultimately modifying the properties of the probed liquid. In this proposal, we will explore the possibility of commercializing a new spectrophotometer where unwanted effects from multiple light scattering are efficiently suppressed.
The instrument prototype used here is called Modu and is based on a new technology developed by the PI and his teams during the “Spray-Imaging” ERC-Starting Grant project. This technology is based on the use of a spatially modulated polychromatic light sheet (PCT pending) imaged from the side. This approach differs significantly from the transmission measurement commonly used in spectrophotometry. From some initial testing, it is found that the suggested technique provides fast, yet more accurate and reliable, characterization of turbid liquids, without the need for dilution. The proposed technology offers, then, a new solution to a variety of industrial problems including concentration measurements in turbid water and pharmaceuticals without any calibration; as well as assessing the colour and haze of unfiltered beverages such as beer, while keeping the sample intact. Thus, the technology and optical instrument proposed here is opening doors for a vast variety new measurement possibilities, including inline monitoring of turbid liquids.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-POC - Proof of Concept GrantHost institution
22100 Lund
Sweden