U.S. scientists have developed a tiny sensor that uses polymer membranes on a silicon disk to measure pollutants in aqueous or gaseous environments.

Georgia Institute of Technology Associate Professor Oliver Brand and graduate student Jae Hyeong Seo said an array of the sensors with differing surface coatings could be used during field-testing to rapidly detect many different chemicals.

Since the new sensor allows water and air samples to be analyzed in the field, the researchers said it is an improvement over classical techniques that require samples be carried back to the laboratory for analysis.

And because each sensor has a diameter of approximately 200-300 microns, or the average diameter of a human hair, an array of a dozen sensors is only a few millimeters in size, the scientists said.

The research -- which also involved Associate Professor Boris Mizaikoff and graduate students Gary Dobbs and Yuliya Luzinovawas -- was presented in Boston last month during the American Chemical Society's 234th National Meeting. // Copyright 2007 by United Press International


Publication date: 19 September 2007   

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