A tiny silicon chip that works a bit like a nose may one day detect dangerous airborne chemicals and alert emergency responders through the cell phone network. If embedded in many cell phones, the new type of sensor could map the location and extent of hazards like gas leaks or the deliberate release of a toxin, according to Michael Sailor, PhD, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). “This technology could map a chemical accident as it unfolds,” he says. In collaboration with the San Diego start-up Rhevision, Inc., founded by Yu-Hwa Lo, PhD, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UCSD’s Jacobs School of Engineering, Sailor’s research group has completed the first phase of the sensor’s development and begun to work on a prototype that will link to a cell phone.<\/p>\n
The sensor, a porous flake of silicon, changes color when it interacts with specific chemicals. By manipulating the shape of the pores, the researchers can tune individual spots on the silicon flake to respond to specific chemical traits. “It works a little like our nose,” Sailor explains. “We have a set of sensory cells that detect specific chemical properties. It’s the pattern of activation across the array of sensors that the brain recognizes as a particular smell. In the same way, the pattern of color changes across the surface of the chip will reveal the identity of the chemical.” The chips already can distinguish between methyl salicylate, a compound used to simulate the chemical warfare agent mustard gas, and toluene, a common additive in gasoline. Potentially, they could discriminate among hundreds of different compounds.<\/p>\n
“The beauty of this technology is that the number of sensors contained in one of our arrays is determined by the pixel resolution of the cell phone camera,” Sailor says. “With the megapixel resolution found in cell phone cameras today, we can easily probe a million different spots on our silicon sensor simultaneously, so we don’t need to wire up a million individual sensors. We only need one. This greatly simplifies the manufacturing process because it allows us to piggyback on all the technology development that has gone into making cell phone cameras lighter, smaller, and cheaper.”<\/p>\n
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