Portable Sensor for Monitoring Airborne Nanoparticle Acitivity (1001-969)

ABSTRACT: Airborne engineered nano-particles (NP) are not detectable in an operational environment without sensitive aerosol monitoring instruments, and even dilute concentrations can be linked to health hazards. Without a means to detect airborne NP exposure, there is a potentially hazardous delay in implementation of exposure control protocols. Currently employed NP monitoring sensors rely on light scattering or mass recognition, techniques that do not allow for detection of key NP properties related to their potential toxic effects, including surface area, reactivity and chemical composition. Triton Systems proposes to develop a novel GPS-enabled wearable personal sensor that will provide the capability to monitor airborne NP concentration as a function of size, surface area, and surface activity. This sensor combines efficient NP collection and size discrimination with real-time monitoring of surface area and activity. Our proposed technology will enable real-time classification of NPs in terms of size and surface chemistry. The product platform will combine efficient NP collection with NP characterization. BENEFIT: A functional portable sensor that would allow for the ability to detect the size and surface area of nano-particles in the environment in real time and capture these particles for more complex off-line laboratory analysis would find numerous commercial applications in industrial hygiene and occupational safety. The ability of such a sensor system to transmit collected NP data in real-time to a remote source will be critical in both military and civilian building infrastructure monitoring as well as bio-warfare agent detection.