SBIR Phase I: Hand-Held Device for PPB-level Water Analysis

SBIR一期项目将开发一种独特的“芯片实验室”，其目标是能够同时检测到低至十亿分之一的几种水污染物。所采用的分离方法是一种创新的微流体波动电渗透技术，该技术使用变直径的毛细管。探测器是一个表面增强拉曼分光光度计使用嵌入金属纳米颗粒。项目小组将使用高氯酸盐和尼古丁作为测试的目标物种对该仪器进行测试。这些目标物质将被吸附在金纳米颗粒上。拟议项目的更广泛/商业影响将是，这可能导致检测自然环境中广泛的污染物的能力，如新兴药物、砷、重金属、黑色素、增塑剂等。对国家安全构成威胁的污染物将被列为附加目标。芯片实验室已经由几家公司开发并商业化，但一般来说，它们仅限于基本的分析，如pH值，电导率等，和/或它们只能检测到百万分之一的特定有机或无机化合物。能够降低到十亿分之一的水平对于许多应用，如现场调查，将是一个很大的好处。将这种新的分离技术与表面增强拉曼分光光度计相结合，可以形成一种独特的技术，可用于检测和定量水中的许多化学物质。

This SBIR Phase I project will develop a unique "lab-on-a-chip", with the objective to be able to simultaneously detect several water contaminants down to parts-per-billion levels. The separation method to be used is an innovative microfluidics undulating electro-osmosis technique which uses a capillary tube with a varying diameter. The detector is a surface-enhanced Raman spectrophotometer using embedded metallic nanoparticles. The project team will conduct tests of the instrument using perchlorate and nicotine as the target species for testing. These target species are to be adsorbed onto gold nanoparticles.The broader/commercial impact of the proposed project will be that this could lead to the capability of detecting a broad array of contaminants in the natural environment such as emerging pharmaceuticals, arsenic, heavy metals, melanine, plasticizers, etc. Contaminants of national security risk would be additional targets. Labs-on-a-chip have been developed and commercialized by several companies, but in general they are limited to basic analyses such as pH, conductivity, etc., and/or they can detect specific organic or inorganic compounds only to parts per million levels. Being able to go down to parts per billion levels will be a great benefit for numerous applications such as on-site investigations. Coupling the novel separation technique to the surface-enhanced Raman spectrophotometer could result in a unique technology that could be quite useful for detecting and quantifying many chemical species in water.