Tiny gas sensors are effective in detecting toxic substances

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are building a tiny sensor used to detect a number of toxic gases including toxic industrial chemicals and agents. Chemical warfare is faster than current devices.

Research scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Luis Velasquez-Garcia (on the left), and Akintunde Ibitayo Akinwande, professor of electronics engineering and computer science, are making tiny touch sensors that can detecting toxic gases, including biochemical warfare agents.

The researchers used common techniques for gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and recombined them into a device the size of a computer mouse. Finally, the team led by MIT professor Akintunde Ibitayo Akinwande makes a device about the size of a matchbox.

(Photo: Donna Coveney) Akinwande - professor of electronics engineering and computer science and a member of the technology labs (MTL) at MIT said: 'Everything we are doing is done on a large scale. We are taking that scale down. '

Reducing the size of downward gas detectors will make them easier to use in a real environment where these devices can be located in buildings or outdoor areas. Akinwande said: making small devices can reduce energy consumption and increase sensitivity in detecting gas.

He is the head of an international team of scientists from Cambridge University, the University of Texas at Dallas, Clean Earth Technology and Raytheon as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Their gas detector uses gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to identify gas molecules by electronic symbols. The current version of compact GC-MS devices takes about 15 minutes to display results, these devices have a capacity of about 40,000 cm ³ , the size of a paper bag for food, and use. 10,000 Jun energy.

This smaller new version consumes about 4 Jun of energy and displays the results within 6 seconds.

Researchers expect to complete the device within two years can be used to protect good water supplies for medical diagnostics as well as to detect toxic gases in the air.

The analyzer works by separating the gas molecules into ionized fragments, which are identified by the specific charge rate of the machine. Gas molecules are separated by separating electrons from molecules, or breaking them with electrons separated from carbon nanotubes. These molecular fragments are then introduced into a long and narrow electric field. At the end of the magnetic field, the charged ions of the ion are converted into voltage and measured by an electric meter, and display the characteristic electronic symbol of the molecules.

Minimizing this device is mainly to reduce the energy needed to operate it, partly because of the energy used to create a vacuum environment in an electric field. Another small size benefit is that smaller devices can be built precisely by microchip manufacturing. The process of manufacturing technology will also help make the detectors cheaper.

Akinwande and MIT research scientists Luis Velasquez-Garcia are expected to present their work at the 2008 Electromechanical Microchip Technology (MEMS) workshop on January 13 last December. announced their invention at the International Electronics Devices meeting.

This study was initiated three years ago with the support of the Ministry of Defense's Advanced Research Project Management Agency and the US Army System Center in Natick, Mass.