Platypus
PLATYPUS re-entered the User Program in December with experiments both at solid and free-liquid surfaces conducted thus far. A busy year for 2010 is envisaged with more than 35 different user experiments planned over the next 7 months.
The most recent PLATYPUS data to be published (Cavaye et al., Langmuir, 2009) is highly topical, and relates to the in-situ study of explosive sensing using thin dendrimer films in concert with fluorescence spectroscopy. Using PLATYPUS, the team led by Prof. Paul Burn from the University of Queensland, showed that the sensing process takes place in seconds and was fully reversible. Moreover, using a deuterated explosive analogue (d-para-nitrotoluene) we were able to observe the nanoscale distribution of the explosive within the dendrimer film; as well as demonstrate very high sensing efficiency, with the photoluminescence of more than 3 dendrimer molecules quenched by a single para-nitrotoluene molecule. Substantial interest has already been generated by this work following recent presentations at international scientific meetings in Korea and Singapore.
