The microchip found cocaine cheap at just $ 0.1

Researchers at the University of Buffalo, New York have produced a new, inexpensive, chemical-sensitive chip that can be used to detect cocaine.

The chip can now detect substances inside blood, breath, urine or powdered water through a purification process, and can detect cocaine within minutes.

The researchers say the next step in their study is to install the chip on a simple, lightweight test device that can be used in rapid drug tests for many other types of matter. together.

This chip can now detect substances inside blood, breath, urine samples . (Artwork).

Current drug testing techniques, based on the Raman surface spectrum, also use chips but are much more expensive; while raw materials for the production of this new chip cost just under $ 0.1.

The new chip, which the team describes as a "multi-layer cake" , is a nano-structure specially designed by layering materials between gold and silver nanoparticles to hold light. When biological or chemical molecules touch the surface of the chip, a portion of the light that has been trapped will interact with the molecules and be scattered into many new light. This effect takes place in unique styles, which can be viewed as fingerprints, revealing information about compounds that are on the chip surface.

This technology is very cost-effective, suitable for industrial production and can be sold for a long time, according to the researchers, it can work well after a year stored in stock. .

The chip will help speed up drug testing procedures in many countries around the world, and will obviously bring significant benefits to police forces and road safety agencies who will have can take advantage of it to do more quick identification tests on multiple drugs.

Researchers hope this chip will soon be able to detect many other drugs, such as marijuana.