High surface-area, mesoporous oxide adsorbent sampling system.

The overall goal of this Phase II project is to develop a prototype micro-fluidic sampling system that will lead to a field-deployable detection system capable of detecting low ppb levels of chemical warfare agents (CWAs) and explosive precursors in water. The proposed work will capitalize on Phase I successes in which the feasibility of using an infrared-based micro-fluidic sampling system was demonstrated against a CWA simulant. Micro-fluidic devices were fabricated from IR-grade silicon wafers and coated with absorptive silica sol-gel films for agent retention, and the concentrated agent was detected and analyzed via transmission FTIR spectroscopy directly through the micro-fluidic device. The novelty of this approach for CWA detection is that, unlike traditional solid phase extraction (SPE) techniques which require an elution step to analyze the collected agent, the proposed micro-fluidic sampling system incorporates SPE concentration capabilities onto a platform that is suitable for direct analysis and easy integration with an infrared-based detection system. The outcome of this two year effort will lead to the development of multiple microfluidic arrays packaged onto a single chip for multi-agent collection and detection.