14. Detecting Pollution and changes in Battery health with NPS

Which day-care center has the best air quality? And is this Li-ion battery approaching a catastrophic failure?

These are questions that NPS technology could answer. In this episode of Season 2 of Science on surfaces we talk to Dr. Elin Langhammer about Nanoplasmonic sensing, also called NPS. Dr. Langhammer is co-founder and technical director of Insplorion, a company that develops and manufactures NPS sensors for research and development instruments as well as large volume sensor applications.

The conversation starts by Dr. Langhammer describing how NPS technology works and how nanoparticles at a surface, illuminated by light, can reveal what happens in their surroundings. We then move on to talk about how this technology is used in diverse areas, both as a research tool and in large-scale sensing applications, for example in measurements of air quality. We also talk about future applications and how NPS measurements can reveal the status and health of Li-ion batteries, information that could facilitate the transition to renewable energy sources, where batteries are an important component.

Thanks for listening! If you are interested in surface and interface science and related topics, you should check out our blog -  the Surface Science blog