I have spent my career in globally recognized research institutes and universities. I have worked at NTU, CARES (Singapore), University of Cambridge (UK), and the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Czech Republic and ICIQ (Spain). I have spent the past thirteen years involved in science and engineering outreach in the fields of nanorobots and electrocatalysis.

In the nanorobot field, my research involves the fabrication and characterization of programmable functional nano/microrobots for environmental and biomedical applications, mainly via proof-of-concept projects. I construct drug-delivery vehicles capable of smart encapsulation, self-navigation, and releasing substances in a rapid and controlled manner. In addition, these microscale machines add a new dimension based on motion to decontamination processes, resulting in new ‘on-the-fly’ remediation protocols, with higher efficiency, shorter cleanup time, and potentially lower costs.

In electrocatalysis, I focus on designing, engineering, and fabricating electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction (ERCO2). ERCO2 using renewable energies produces value-added chemicals and fuels and simultaneously reduces our carbon footprint. Developing an effective catalyst is vital, as there are currently no industrial-scale operations utilizing this technology in view of its low energetic efficiency. My recent progress shows that structural and compositional modulations are promising to regulate the accessible surface area and promote the activity for the selective production of chemicals.

B.2. Breve descripción del Trabajo de Fin de Máster (TFM) y puntuación obtenida Optical chemical sensors (optodes) for detection of heavy metals have been considered as viable alternatives to other types of sensors, as they offer several advantages such as ease of preparation and procedures, small size, low cost, relatively fast response, wide response range, reasonable selectivity, and high sensitivity. During my MSc, I was responsible for the fabrication of a very sensitive, highly selective, and reversible optical chemical sensor (optode) for mercury ion as the state-of-the-art (2004) sensors suffer from a lack of sensitivity and selectivity, which are required for the determination of low concentration levels of mercury ion and some have the drawback of irreversibility or relatively long response time. Searching for new sensing materials that can respond reversibly, selectively, and sensitively to the analyte in a short time was the key step in my sensor design. The selectivity, sensitivity, and response time of the chemical sensors highly depend on the type of recognition elements used in the detection system. Several structural features of the ligands are considered to be important in their selectivity toward mercury ions, such as the type and geometrical arrangement of the donor atoms and their ability to coordinate with the “soft” mercury ion. Further, mercury ion is a soft acid and thus tends to interact with π-electrons. These interactions result in a high selectivity over “hard” metal ions. Among the various types of detection systems used in mercury optodes, those based on sulfur-containing ionophores, generally, have shown better selectivity and lower detection limit. In an aqueous solution, little or no reaction occurs between the sulfur-containing ligands and either alkali or alkaline earth metal ions, but the stability of their complexes with Hg2+ is enhanced markedly. Since Hg2+ displays a great affinity for soft coordination centers like sulfur, the use of thiol compounds as carriers in optodes, is expected to increase their selectivity over those of alkali, alkaline earth, and several other metal ions. Therefore, we were prompted to investigate the behavior of 2-mercapto-2-thiazoline (MTZ) and 2-mercaptopyrimidine (2-MP), as the active ionophores with sulfur-containing recognition sites, in conjunction with a proton-selective chromoionophore (ETH5294) and lipophilic anionic sites (sodium tetraphenylborate, NaTPB) in plasticized PVC matrix for highly selective and sensitive batch and flow-through determination of mercury ion. The proposed sensor could be fully regenerated with dilute nitric acid solutions, has a relatively short response time, and offers a subnanomolar. Moreover, they have been incorporated into a home-made flow-through cell for the determination of mercury ion in flowing streams with improved sensitivity, precision, and detection limit. detection limit.