Acoustic Wave Sensors for In-situ Detection and Characterization of Organic Contaminants in Aqueous Solution

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9876366JosseOverview. To detect organic compounds in contaminated ground and waste water that result in human and environmental health hazards, this research project will investigate and design a rapid, reliable, and high-sensitivity sensor device for reproducible measurements in liquid environments.Problem. Organic contaminants, particularly volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pose significant human and environmental health hazards. More precisely, groundwater and mixed waste water samples often contain such VOCs as trichloroethene, halogenated phenols, vinyl chloride, benzene, toluene, and xylene. Currently, sampling must be collected and transported to laboratories for analysis. As a consequence, analyses are not only delayed, but more importantly, the delays result in compromised scientific data due to degradation and evaporation of the samples. Accordingly, there is need for a rapid and sensitive method to reproducibly detect ground and waste water contaminants, with ease of testing.Goal and Objectives. The goal of this multidisciplinary research proposal is to investigate, characterize, and design polymer-coated chemical sensors for the direct, rapid, in-situ monitoring of organic compounds and other hazardous constituents in water. To meet this goal, three specific objectives will be met. 1. To investigate and design a reliable and high-sensitivity sensor platform utilizing shear horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) device for reproducible sensor operation in liquid environments 2. To characterize individual sensors and classify polymer coating-analyte pairs into patterns3. To investigate the implementation of sensor arrays to characterize mixtures of analytes using the weak selectivity of the coatings together with proven pattern recognition methods.***