SBIR Phase I: Ethylene Sensor for Monitoring Produce Ripeness and Reducing Spoilage of Food

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目旨在开发一种商业上可行的、高度便携的、具有成本效益的电子气体传感器芯片，用于检测植物激素乙烯。测量乙烯可以估计水果的成熟度，因此传感器芯片可以用来指导决策，从而减少农业、储存、运输和分销过程中农产品的浪费和腐败。这种方法有三个关键的创新。(1)该技术具有可扩展性，性价比高，传感器输出为简单的电阻测量。该传感器是一种基于纸张的化学电阻传感器芯片（一张名片大小）。金属电极与单壁碳纳米管（SWCNTs）组成电路，可以在复杂的化学环境中选择性地检测乙烯气体。(2)开发用于乙烯检测的新型固态传感材料配方。这种仿生方法能够在现实世界的混杂条件下，以低于1ppm的浓度检测乙烯，成本比目前的解决方案低10 -100倍。(3)通过模块化、快速、可扩展和无溶剂的制造方法，提出了批量生产和快速原型制造方法。这种创新但简单的制造方法类似于用铅笔在纸上画画。该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是减少因腐败而浪费的农产品，腐败每年造成约200亿美元的损失。减少农产品腐败需要创新的策略，包括在成熟的高峰期销售，或者及时从供应链中移除变质的农产品，以避免交叉污染。测量乙烯是食品供应链管理的关键，有助于这些努力。目前检测乙烯的方法繁琐、昂贵、复杂，而且/或者不能满足大规模实施的其他必要性能要求。传统的实验室水平传感方法，如光声光谱或气相色谱法用于测量乙烯。然而，所需的仪器体积庞大，价格昂贵，并且需要训练有素的人员。手持式乙烯传感器（通常是电化学的）最近已经可用，但它们的价格约为1000美元，对于大多数食品传感应用来说过于昂贵。因此，食品生产、储存、运输和零售公司都对乙烯传感器感兴趣。此外，没有乙烯传感能力的传感器公司（通用和食品部门）对乙烯传感技术非常感兴趣。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project aims to develop a commercially viable, highly portable, and cost-effective electronic gas sensor chip for detecting the plant hormone ethylene. Measuring ethylene allows an estimate of fruit ripeness and the sensor chips can thus be utilized to guide decisions that lead to a reduction in waste and spoilage of produce in agriculture, storage, transportation, and distribution. This approach has three key innovations. (1) The technology is scalable, cost-effective, and the sensor output is a simple resistance measurement. The sensor is a paper-based chemiresistive sensor chip (the size of a business card). Metal electrodes form a circuit with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) specially functionalized to selectively detect ethylene gas in a complex chemical environment. (2) Novel solid-state sensing material formulations for ethylene detection will be developed. This biomimetic approach enables detection of ethylene in real-world confounding conditions at concentrations below 1 ppm at 10x-100x lower cost than current solutions. (3) Mass production and rapid prototyping are proposed through a modular, rapid, scalable, and solvent-free manufacturing method. This innovative, but simple manufacturing method is analogous to drawing with pencil on paper. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is the reduction of produce wasted by spoilage that results in losses of ca. $20BN per year. Innovative strategies are needed for reducing produce spoilage including selling at peak ripeness, or promptly removing spoiled produce from the supply chain to avoid cross-contamination. Measuring ethylene is key to food supply chain management to aid in these efforts. Current methods for detecting ethylene, are cumbersome, expensive, complex, and/or do not meet other necessary performance requirements for large scale implementation. Traditional laboratory level sensing methods such as photoacoustic spectroscopy or gas chromatography are used to measure ethylene. The required instruments are, however, bulky, expensive and require trained personnel. Handheld ethylene sensors (typically electrochemical) have recently become available, but their prices of ca. $1,000 are prohibitively expensive for most food sensing applications. As a result, companies in food production, storage, transport, and retail, are interested in the ethylene sensors. Additionally, sensor companies (general and in the food sector) who do not have ethylene sensing capabilities are very interested in ethylene sensing technology.