Due to the high concern over chemical and biological weapons and significant interest from governmental, environmental and health-related agencies to be able to detect the presence of airborne pathogens in indoor air environments as well as chemical agents, there is a high need for small, portable, accurate, low power use chemical sensors capable of rapid, in situ detection of chemical signatures of bacteria and of chemical agents in the air.
The project I am currently working on aims to develop and test new pattern recognition and sensor mode technology via the use of multiple measurement domains and selective filtering techniques. A microcantilever based sensor instrument will be used to detect chemical signatures for determining the presence of specific types of bacteria based on complex bacteria chemical vapor signatures and for determining some specified chemicals in the air.
Cantilever structures are the simplest micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). Absorption of molecules on the surface of a cantilever changes the total mass and, consequently, the resonance frequency of the cantilever. The ability to detect extremely small displacements makes the cantilever an ideal device for detection of extremely small forces and stresses.
We are also planning to study new coating materials for enhancing the microcantilever based sensor instrument and increasing selectivity to target analytes. The project is designed to be carried out in close collaboration with Nevada NanoTech Systems (NNTS). The main goal of this project is to develop and test a sensor system for detection and differentiation of select bacterial species of toxicological concern as well as some chemicals in the unknown mixtures of gases.
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