Portable Pesticide Monitor

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) Pesticides pose a significant health hazard to the general public and especially individuals working or living around farmland. Pesticides can enter the drinking water supply via run-off into lakes and streams. People can be exposed to pesticides by inhalation, swallowing or by skin or eye contact resulting in poisoning symptoms including: excessive sweating, chills or thirst, chest pains, difficulty breathing, and muscle cramps. To help prevent exposure to these toxic compounds, Lynntech proposes to develop a wearable/portable sensor that can detect, identify and determine the concentration of these compounds within a variety of matrices, i.e. air, water and/or soil in a rugged and reliable device. Using cutting-edge nanotechnology, Lynntech will fabricate miniaturized sensors coupled with innovative enzyme matrices that have the potential to identify P-O, P-S, and P-F type pesticides individually, providing an improved sensing platform for critiquing their source. The proposed sensor technology will be extremely lightweight and long-lasting due to its lowpower requirement, small size, and enhanced enzyme stabilization. The proposed pesticide sensor will have commercial applications in both remote and/or point-of-use monitoring all water supplies, protecting farmers/crop-sprayers or military soldiers in the battlefield against chemical warfare agents which are often in the form detectable by the proposed sensor. Lynntech's Phase I research will consist of several proof-of-concept experiments which will involve the demonstration and characterization/optimization of the signal response's sensitivity, selectivity and propensity to give false-positive responses. Phase II research will continue with the advancement of the sensing platform with the design, assembly and testing of the first-generation wearable sensor with automated sampling, processing and data display. The research team consisting of a group of research engineers and scientists with backgrounds in sensor design and fabrication, enzyme characterization, software/hardware programming and electrochemistry, making this research project truly multidisciplinary, thereby providing the necessary expertise to make this project a success.