You are cordially invited to attend the seminar organized by the Department of Chemistry.
Title: Molecularly Imprinted Polymer Gas Sensors
Speaker: Dr. Todd Cowen
Date: 21/05/2025, Wednesday
Time: 12:30 (Turkiye Time)
Place: SBZ14
Molecularly imprinted polymer gas sensors
Abstract: Gas sensing mostly conjures ideas of pollution monitoring devices designed to respond to carbon monoxide, methane, and sulfur dioxide. While such instruments are essential and often impressive in their performance, traditional gas sensors often struggle to distinguish volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Identifying and quantifying specific VOCs could be extremely valuable in agriculture, food analysis and health screening, but there are currently very few options available.
Molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are materials with binding sites complementary to specific molecules, as a result of being synthesised in the presence of those molecules. This complementary binding site has led to MIPs being regularly encountered in the literature, where they are regularly applied in analytical applications. However, gas phase applications are overlooked or dismissed by most experts in molecular imprinting. This seminar will discuss my work with molecularly imprinted polymer VOC sensors, some possible reasons why others are not working in this area, and the benefits of developing this technology.
Short Biography: Dr Todd Cowen completed his PhD in 2018 at the University of Leicester (UK) under the supervision of Prof Sergey Piletsky and Dr Kal Karim. His research initially focused on the production of a molecular dynamics-based polymerisation algorithm for the analysis of molecularly imprinted polymer synthesis, which was followed by laboratory research into the effect of thermodynamic parameters on molecularly imprinted polymer nanoparticle properties. These two research areas collectively formed the basis for an exploration into the synthetic mechanism of molecular imprinting, an essential subject in the field but one that is rarely explored. Following a period of work designing molecularly imprinted polymers commercially, Dr Cowen returned to the University of Leicester for a postdoctoral position researching MIP nanoparticles for enzyme activation and their possibility in separating viruses. Transferring to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, he managed a project producing MIP-based gas sensors, for the purpose of developing dual-functionality antenna-sensor arrays. Following a final postdoctoral position at the University of Verona, Dr Cowen moved to London to investigate the possibility of developing MIP-based gas sensors commercially with a local business incubator.