Heroin, cocaine and 'crack' cocaine are now considered to be the most powerfully addictive drugs Western society has ever had to confront. In the inner city areas of the United States, and now in Europe, illicit drugs are generating an unprecedented wave of violence and social disruption. The impact of the dramatic increase in the importation of concealed illicit drugs into the UK over the last few years has prompted a critical appraisal of current technology for the detection of such drugs of abuse. The proliferation of illicit drugs, explosives, new technologies, and expertise increases the potential for drug smugglers and terrorists to evade our existing countermeasures at points of entry to and exit from the UK. Present methods for the detection of illicit drugs and explosives leave much to be desired. To allow analysis to occur in the 'field' there is an urgent need for the development of improved on-site testing. To address this challenge, we are aiming to develop novel inexpensive sensors to rapidly and effectively detect particulate drugs and explosives. We have identified microbial enzymes that have high activity and specificity towards illicit drugs and explosives and have shown that these enzymes can be used as recognition components in sensors. Enzyme catalysed processes naturally occur in aqueous (water-based) environments; however, the presence of water is far from ideal in a sensor that has to be exposed to air for long periods of time, because it tends to evaporate. We are therefore proposing to explore the potential for ionic liquids (salts that are molten at room temperature) as alternative media for optical waveguide sensors. Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) possess a range of properties that make them desirable solvents, such as zero vapour pressure and being classified as environmentally friendly. We recently designed and created a new generation of functionalized ionic liquids that have increased hydromimetic (water-like) properties yet retain all the advantages of traditional RTILs. Using these RTILs we have shown that it is possible to obtain enzyme catalysis with complex (co-factor requiring) enzymes at very low levels of water (less than 100 ppm); which was previously impossible using the traditional BMIm PF6-related RTILs. The great potential for the use of these designer RTILs has aroused much excitement from biotechnology, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, leading to the commercialization of their production. These novel funtionalized ionic liquids, along with the appropriate enzymes and reagents will be deposited as thin film wave guides on low-cost moulded polymeric devices. We propose to utilize a unique collaboration between Dstl, PSDB, RTIL producers Bioniqs Ltd., and a multidisciplinary team of academics with expertise in enzymology, ionic liquid chemistry and sensor technologies to develop a commercially viable enzyme-based, prototype handheld biosensor for the detection of particulate illicit drugs and high explosives.

Wireless Body Area Networking (WBAN) is an important area of emerging technology where a network of bodyworn or personal electronic devices is established, most often using radio communications. A WBAN may also have to support person-person or wider area communications. Therefore, a WBAN is an important and challenging environment for bodyworn antennas since they may be required to support or be configured to yield quite distinct propagating modes such as: on-body only, off-body (e.g., cellular or wireless LAN) only, or some combination of these. In addition, an ideal antenna for WBAN use will be low profile or conformal, efficient with minimal power losses in body tissues and not adversely affected by the user's movements. This work will address these challenges directly by creating and investigating a new class of wideband low-profile patch-antenna elements with reduced groundplane currents (higher efficiency and greater safety) and with a tangential propagating mode for both over the body surface communications. The tangential propagating mode also has the potential for achieving omnidirectional coverage from one antenna element depending on the operating frequency, albeit with additional losses in the through body direction. The achievement of these aims will involve detailed work in the area of patch element design, the use of advanced dielectric materials and will leverage the latest research on electromagnetic metamaterials. Although the work will focus on antennas for the 2.4 GHz industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) band, consideration will be given to lower frequencies down to 400 MHz in support applications such as medical device networking. The project will use both theoretical and numerical analysis and the funding requested will allow the experimental validation of the work, specifically in terms of whole body radiation efficiency measurements and radio-over-fibre measurements of on-body antenna element coupling.

There is a need for inspection systems that are able to detect explosives (or drugs) hidden in for example luggage. These systems are most efficient if they can inspect the object without having to investigate by hand. e.g. a person does not have to search each piece of luggage or container. Explosives almost universally comprise hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen is different ratios. A system that will detect elements like these is based on sending a beam of neutrons into the system. The different elements will emit gamma rays of different energies which are unique to the isotopes concerned. These gamma rays can be measured accurately with a germanium gamma-ray detector and hence the amount of each element determined. This information can then be used to determined the ratios of the four elements and hence whether explosives (or drugs etc.) are present. By using modern technology the germanium detector can also be used to make an image of the object under investigate, similar to an airport baggage scanner. In this case the gamma-rays and scattered neutrons will be detected simultaneously to make a clearer image. By the end of the project we hope to have demonstrated in the laboratory that these ideas are effective and to determine the potential sensitivity.

There is a need for inspection systems that are able to detect explosives (or drugs) hidden in for example luggage. These systems are most efficient if they can inspect the object without having to investigate by hand. e.g. a person does not have to search each piece of luggage or container. Explosives almost universally comprise hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen is different ratios. A system that will detect elements like these is based on sending a beam of neutrons into the system. The different elements will emit gamma rays of different energies which are unique to the isotopes concerned. These gamma rays can be measured accurately with a germanium gamma-ray detector and hence the amount of each element determined. This information can then be used to determined the ratios of the four elements and hence whether explosives (or drugs etc.) are present. By using modern technology the germanium detector can also be used to make an image of the object under investigate, similar to an airport baggage scanner. In this case the gamma-rays and scattered neutrons will be detected simultaneously to make a clearer image. By the end of the project we hope to have demonstrated in the laboratory that these ideas are effective and to determine the potential sensitivity.