Augustana College's undergraduate student, Huy Nguyen is working with Dr. Jetty L. Duffy- Matzner to help advance the development of rapid, sensitive, and selective chemical sensors that are critical to a range of health related applications in conjunction with Dr. Wayne Jones at Binghamton University.

Environmental contaminants including transition metals, radionuclides, toxic gases and organic pollutants have established maximum allowable limits set by the Clean Air Act. Important biologically active molecules, including pathogens or biomarkers, are also suitable targets for further development of chemosensor materials and devices. Methods for in-situ detection of these classes of compounds are needed for monitoring and quantification.

In recent years, community, environmental and economic concerns have exerted pressure on environmental scientists to reduce the turn-around time and costs of such detection. The research is enabled by the EPSCoR RII award to South Dakota as well as an award from the Augustana College Research and Artist Fund (ARAF).

Wohl Ziegler free radical bromination apparatus



Huy Nguyen presents his research poster