Novel Micro-Capillary Electrochromatography for Mars Organic Detector

Los Gatos Research proposes to develop a powerful new technology - next generation Micro-Capillary Electrochromatography – a high performance and low power consumption microfluidic sample separation device suited for separating organic molecules as signatures of past and present life on Mars. In particular, these micro-devices will be engineered for integration with NASA's Mars Organic Detector. For the Phase I effort, we will design, construct, and test the micro-CEC chips. The Phase I research will address issues related to performance as well as production methods that can be used for the technology, as well as designing and determining the integrated micro-device and the Phase II prototype. In the Phase II effort, we will integrate the micro-CEC prototypes with the existing micro-CE analyzers as a dual micro-CE/micro-CEC system capable of separating all neutral and charged organic molecules as targeted by Urey, thus provide new capabilities for NASA sample separation instrumentation development.