Prof. Siu Ning (Sunny) Leung is co-leading a project to optimize the rapid detection and extraction of these critical minerals – particularly lithium. This $1.5-million project, funded by the Natural Sciences & Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Alliance Mission Grant, addresses a nationwide call for critical minerals research, stemming from Canada’s Critical Mineral Strategy.
“If we can successfully detect lithium with our technology, we can do so much more,” says Leung. “We are working on a platform technology – the idea is to optimize the detection of one mineral and then work toward other applications. One day, we plan to expand our work to detect other materials, like biological contaminants or disease biomarkers.”