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UCSD Unveils Toxin-Sniffing Sensors for Your Cell Phone

by Matthew Zuras on May 18, 2010 at 06:30 AM

a small silicon sensor can detect airborne toxinsResearchers at The University of California at San Diego have developed a tiny silicon chip that can detect the presence and plot the location of dangerous chemicals in the air. Their goal is to embed the chips in cell phones, which could then "map a chemical accident as it unfolds," says Michael Sailor, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the university.

Much like the olfactory neurons in the nose, the tiny sensors are riddled with pores that detect the chemical signatures of airborne toxins. The sensors, described as tiny flakes of silicon, change color in response to the presence of chemical agents, just as the brain recognizes the variety of neuroelectric signals from the nose as a single odor. "It's the pattern of activation across the array of sensors that the brain recognizes as a particular smell," says Sailor. "In the same way, the pattern of color changes across the surface of the chip will reveal the identity of the chemical."

A minuscule megapixel camera focuses in on the sensor array with the help of a supermacro lens, which utilizes fluid rather than mechanical parts to dilate and contract. Sailor claims that the number of sensors in a given array is only limited by the pixel resolution of the cell phone camera. "With the megapixel resolution found in cell phone cameras today, we can easily probe a million different spots on our silicon sensor simultaneously," he says.

The chips can already detect common additives in gasoline and methyl salicylate, a chemical used to simulate mustard gas. The goal is to create chips that can distinguish among hundreds of compounds and filter out the benign from the toxic. The researchers also hope to include this technology in firefighters' masks to detect the presence of carbon monoxide, or to warn miners of potential accumulations of explosive gases. [From: UCSD News, via: CNET and Textually]

Tags: Airborne, camera, cell phone, CellPhone, cellphones, michael sailor, MichaelSailor, research, science, sensor, silicon sensor, SiliconSensor, top, toxic, University of California, University of California San Diego, UniversityOfCalifornia, UniversityOfCaliforniaSanDiego

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