Nanohybrids as environmental probes

1.       Development of tracers and quantification methods for oil industry

This field of activities concerns the problem of chemicals monitoring in industrial applications spacing from oil extraction facilities to water treatment industry. Long-term collaborations with industrial partners allow the development of scientific tools and methods that help the detection and quantification of chemical additives (corrosion and scale inhibitors, Enhanced Oil Recovery and antifoam additives) in complex media. We patented a new approach based on time-resolved fluorescence (TRF) assays for the accurate on-site estimation of compounds that overcomes most of the limits of current technology (sampling, analytical measurement, production feedbacks). In parallel we implemented a portative TRF spectrophotometer that can be used directly on-site (collaboration with Glincs SAS, spin-off of team created in 2017). Current researches of the team are focused on the improvement of sampling/measurement automatism as well the quantification algorithm in order to fulfill most of real industrial cases.

2.       Design of eco-friendly nano-tracers for assessing infiltration & filtration functions of urban soils

We currently design nano-tracers that mimic the main families of pollutants and bacteria found in stormwater for studying the urban runoff volumes and estimating the pollutants transfer. The idea is to follow the water flooding under urban soils by Ground Penetrating Radar analysis of synthetic nano-tracers sizing 50 nm, 500 nm and 5 μm, and mapping their preferential infiltration pathways. Such hybrid nanoparticles also support additional features like fluorescence/magnetic detectability, customized interfaces and shapes.

The Fennec team is part of consortium of academic and industrial partners (included the Nano-H start-up) that collaborates for the delivering of specific analysis packages adequate for contaminated or anthropic soils.