Biography

Research Project: Design of precision polymers by acoustic levitation for nanoscale gas sensing in medical diagnosis
Supervisors: Joao Cabral (ICL), Alexandra Porter (ICL)

Andru graduated from Imperial College London with a MEng degree in Chemical with Nuclear Engineering. For his master thesis, Andru researched the spreading properties of silicone oil on 1D and 2D multiaxial wrinkled surfaces of PDMS samples. His current research takes place in the Polymers and Microfluidics research group, under the supervision of Prof. Joao Cabral. The aim of Andru’s project is to develop tailored polymeric adsorbers with precise, nanoscale characteristics, and scale-up potential, using novel production methods, like the acoustic levitation one, and multidisciplinary advanced characterisation techniques. His focus will be on studying the influence of the production methods on the “extrinsic” microporosities of the studied polymers, where the demixing pathway design of the multicomponent solution shapes the internal structure of the resulting porous material. The main applications of the polymers will be in VOCs detection and in medical diagnosis.

Elwin Hunter

Studying my PhD as part of the ACM CDT not only provided me with valuable training courses and workshops on characterisation techniques, but also regular academic seminars, team activities, and discussions to help expand my interests, both inside and outside of research.