RADICAL

RADICAL was an EU-funded research project that has developed a brand-new way of detecting atmospheric radicals in real-time. This is a small, low-cost electronic sensor that ‘sniffs’ out short-lived radicals such as hydroxyl and nitrate, which play a key intermediary role in day- and night-time air quality. This has never been done before. Our new RADICAL sensors are cheap, small and able to be rolled out on a global scale to help us better monitor and model the role of radicals in air quality and climate change. The sensors can also be adapted to detect other gases with a wide range of potential applications. RADICAL was a collaboration between multidisciplinary partners across Europe including University College Cork (Ireland), HZDR (Germany), University of York (United Kingdom), NTUA (Greece), Smartcom (Bulgaria), and UCC Academy (Ireland). RADICAL was an amalgamation of extensive expertise across the fields of materials science, computer modelling, nanofabrication and nanoelectronics, as well as organic, radical, and atmospheric chemistry. RADICAL received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No 899282. It had a total budget of €3.2 million and ran from 1 November 2020 to 31 January 2025. Website: https://radical-air.eu/ Archived website (permalink): https://web.archive.org/web/20220106095151/https://radical-air.eu/