This project investigated ways to deliver revolutionary advances in liquid/sample handling combined with new approaches to performing sensitive in situ analytical measurements. The goal of the project was to drive down the unit cost of these instruments by orders of magnitude to levels that can create a tipping point, at which the technology becomes ubiquitous.

Project outcomes:

Development of novel technologies that will contribute significantly to the realisation of next generation autonomous analytical instruments for distributed environmental monitoring.
New services based on the information generated by these instruments in real deployment scenarios.
Photoactuated polymer valve structures fully integrated within microfluidic channels.
Highly sensitive detector integrated with microfluidics sample preparation.
Photo-controlled functions such as filtering, preconcentration, uptake and release, surface activation/passivation.

TelLab’s contribution:

TelLab, as the leader of Work Package 3 “Sampling and Pre-concentration”, focused on the development of a portable pre-concentration method for analytes using reverse osmosis, e.g. Ammonia, Phosphate, Nitrate, Nitrite, Iron, Manganese. Potentially this system can be used where the concentration of analytes is lower than the Limits of Detection.

TelLab was also the leader of Work Package 8 “Deployment of systems” where we were responsible for the deployment of prototypes. Additionally, we were involved in all dissemination and exploitation activities.