A portable sensor for explosives. The National Research priority, safeguarding Australia, recognises that there is a real threat of terrorism and the need to protect Australians at home and abroad. Although there is often talk of dirty bombs, and biological and nuclear terrorism, the most easily sourced weapon of the terrorist is still the conventional explosive. The ability to detect trace amounts of explosives is therefore required. This means that there is a real need for a portable detection ....A portable sensor for explosives. The National Research priority, safeguarding Australia, recognises that there is a real threat of terrorism and the need to protect Australians at home and abroad. Although there is often talk of dirty bombs, and biological and nuclear terrorism, the most easily sourced weapon of the terrorist is still the conventional explosive. The ability to detect trace amounts of explosives is therefore required. This means that there is a real need for a portable detection system with the ability to reliably sense a specific explosive selectively at low concentrations. This project concerns the development of a new handheld sensor that has the potential to increase the nation's security.Read moreRead less
Printable technologies for high security documents and consumer products. Printable technologies for high security documents and consumer products. This project aims to develop two next-generation printable security feature technologies to protect users from counterfeiting, which costs the world economy billions in lost revenue and undermines the security of citizens. First, it aims to enhance the security of banknotes by developing printable active device patches with energy harvesting flexible ....Printable technologies for high security documents and consumer products. Printable technologies for high security documents and consumer products. This project aims to develop two next-generation printable security feature technologies to protect users from counterfeiting, which costs the world economy billions in lost revenue and undermines the security of citizens. First, it aims to enhance the security of banknotes by developing printable active device patches with energy harvesting flexible polymers as a power source and thin film graphene/polymer nanomaterial as an electrode/energy storage media. Second, it aims to design invisible carbon nanotube inks for optical authentication via near infrared activation. Both technologies are expected to thwart sophisticated counterfeits, particularly those supported by organised crime.Read moreRead less
Band engineered heterostructures for next generation mercury cadmium telluride infrared photodetectors. The application of unique heterostructures in mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) photodetectors is proposed to address at least four problems: increase of operating temperature, passivation, multiband operation, fill factor. This ambitious project will lead to a significant step forward the HgCdTe infrared photodetector physics and technology.
Detecting the invisible. The most easily sourced weapons of the terrorist contain conventional explosives such as TNT and Semtex. This project concerns the development of sensing materials and protocols that can give selective, sensitive, real time sensing of explosive analytes that will lead to an increase in the nation’s security.