Miniaturised electrophoretic systems for distributed environmental sensing. This project aims to develop new low-cost sensors to quantify a range of water nutrients for continuous automated water monitoring. The project aims to design a microfluidic cartridge to obtain a particulate-free sample for analysis by the rapid separation of inorganic anions and cations. The cartridge is intended to be operated in a portable low cost, low weight, low power instrument. The deployment of multiple units ai ....Miniaturised electrophoretic systems for distributed environmental sensing. This project aims to develop new low-cost sensors to quantify a range of water nutrients for continuous automated water monitoring. The project aims to design a microfluidic cartridge to obtain a particulate-free sample for analysis by the rapid separation of inorganic anions and cations. The cartridge is intended to be operated in a portable low cost, low weight, low power instrument. The deployment of multiple units aims to provide a continuous data stream describing the changes in nutrient profiles within various waters, to feed into environmental models and inform best practice for agriculture and aquaculture industries.Read moreRead less
Highly integrated miniaturised total analysis systems for pharmaceuticals in biological and environmental samples. This project will develop three unique chemical approaches that will each overcome a challenge to the creation of advanced miniaturised analytical devices with sample-in/answer-out capability. This will provide substantial improvements in speed, cost, portability, and operational simplicity and safety. New technology for analysing drugs in body fluids will be critical to enabling pe ....Highly integrated miniaturised total analysis systems for pharmaceuticals in biological and environmental samples. This project will develop three unique chemical approaches that will each overcome a challenge to the creation of advanced miniaturised analytical devices with sample-in/answer-out capability. This will provide substantial improvements in speed, cost, portability, and operational simplicity and safety. New technology for analysing drugs in body fluids will be critical to enabling people to closely match their pharmaceutical consumption with their individual requirements. The advance will have implications for all patients, particularly those in remote and rural Australian populations. The same technology is likely to find applications in environmental monitoring of emerging pharmaceutical pollutants. Read moreRead less
Impacts of pharmaceuticals and personal care products on Australian aquatic ecosystems. Pharmaceutical and personal care products (e.g. antihistamines, caffeine, antibiotics) have recently been shown to suppress rates of the critical processes providing food resources to fish and insects, threatening viability of aquatic ecosystems. Using novel methods, this project will investigate acute and longer term impacts of these chemicals.
Development of novel passive sampling devices for ammonia monitoring. This project will develop novel inexpensive passive samplers for ammonia which is an indicator for faecal contamination in stormwater. These devices will increase dramatically the efficiency in isolating intermittent faecal contamination sources in drainage networks by eliminating the need for extensive manual sampling and inspection operations.