| Chasing Chemical Contaminants |
| Written by Silke Pichler | |
| Wednesday, 01 October 2008 | |
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Silke Pichler discusses the penny-sized chip which can detect tiny traces of potentially dangerous substances. From the threat of chemical warfare and explosives, to chemical contaminants in your food; the ability to detect potentially harmful chemicals has become increasingly important in today’s world. Owlstone Nanotech has developed a technology that can identify chemicals in extremely small quantities, all in a detector less than the size of a one pence piece.Founded by University of Cambridge engineering graduate students in 2004, Owlstone has designed a detector that is one hundred times smaller and a thousand times cheaper than other available detectors. The United States Department of Defense obviously loves the idea – it currently has a $3.7 million contract with Owlstone Nanotech for the detection of chemical warfare agents, toxic chemicals and explosive vapours. The technology on which Owlstone is based has a unique electrode design, the main advantage being the small size. Because the sensor is made from silicon using micro-fabrication techniques, Owlstone has been able to substantially reduce the size of their detectors compared to competitors (see Box). To identify the presence of a specific chemical the detected signal from an unknown sample is compared with that of known chemicals, held in a ‘library’ of molecular signatures. Alternatively, the system can be taught what a ‘normal’ signal looks like for any given environment-say the air inside a house-and trigger an alarm if the signal deviates from this standard. So far, Owlstone has developed several products based on the idea, which have applications in defense, industry and everyday life. ‘Lonestar’ for example is a portable gas analyser that can be taken along for screenings in a wide variety of suspicious situations, including monitoring of food and drink safety. According to Danielle Toutoungi, project manager for new product development at Owlstone, further applications of the invention include homeland security applications and, in the longer term, medical applications of the system. Breath analysis is one potential usage, to monitor or diagnose diseases. For example, acetone in exhaled air is a marker for diabetes, and hydrogen cyanide may play a similar role in cystic fibrosis. Thanks to the small size of the Owlstone chip, future devices could be connected to mobile phones and allow chemical detectors to become companions of every day life. |
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