Highly selective chemical and biological sensors

Abstract

Methods and sensors for selective fluid sensing are provided. A sensor includes a resonant inductor-capacitor-resistor (LCR) circuit and a sensing material disposed over the LCR circuit. The sensing material includes a coordination compound of a ligand and a metal nanoparticle. The coordination compound has the formula: (X)n-M, where X includes an alkylamine group having the formula (R—NH2), an alkylphosphine having the formula (R3—P), an alkylphosphine oxide having the formula (R3P═O), an alkyldithiocarbamate having the formula (R2NCS2), an alkylxanthate having the formula (ROCS2), or any combination thereof, R includes an alkyl group, n is 1, 2, or 3, and M includes the metal nanoparticle of gold, silver, platinum, palladium, alloys thereof, highly conductive metal nanoparticles, or any combination thereof. The sensing material is configured to allow selective detection of at least six different analyte fluids from an analyzed fluid mixture.

Description

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT[0001]This invention was made with Government support and funded in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences under Grant No. 1R01ES016569-01A1. The Government has certain rights in the invention.BACKGROUND[0002]The subject matter disclosed herein relates to chemical and biological sensors, and more particularly, to highly selective chemical and biological sensors.[0003]Chemical and biological sensors are often employed in a number of applications where the detection of various vapors may be used to discern useful information. For instance, measuring the presence of vapors by discerning a change in certain environmental variables within or surrounding a sensor may be particularly useful in monitoring changes in biopharmaceutical products, food or beverages, monitoring industrial areas for chemical or physical hazards, as well as in security applications, such as residential home monitoring, home land...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

"The patent describes a sensor that uses a special material called a coordination compound, which is made up of a ligand and a metal nanoparticle. This compound is placed on a resonant circuit, which is a type of sensor. The sensor can detect different fluids and measure their electrical properties. The sensor is designed to be highly selective and can detect multiple analytes in a fluid mixture. The sensor can also measure the impact of different environmental factors on its performance. Overall, the patent describes a new technology that can provide a more accurate and selective way to detect different chemicals and biological species in fluids."

Problems solved by technology

However, while using identical sensors simplifies fabrication of the sensor array, such an array may have limited capabilities for sensing only a single response (e.g. resistance, current, capacitance, work function, mass, optical thickness, light intensity, etc).

Disadvantageously, fabricating a sensor array having individual sensors uniquely fabricated to sense a particular response, complicates fabrication of the array.

The greater the number of vapors and vapor mixtures that may be present, the more difficult it may be to accurately sense and discern a specific type of vapor or vapor mixture being sensed.

For instance, high humidity environments often interfere with the ability of traditional sensors to detect selected vapors.

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