A Platform for Lightweight Chemical and Biochemical Sensors

Thousands of chemical sensors based on functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been demonstrated in lab settings over recent years, many of which are relevant to pressing defense needs (threat detection, etc.). However, technical problems, namely interferents and drift, have prohibited the development of these sensors beyond TRL-1. ANI is developing a thin-film sensor platform that will enable these sensors to make the previously unattainable transition from the lab to the hands of the Airmen who need them most. ANI’s thin-film sensor platform is a two-fold innovation to solve these pressing technical challenges. A high-throughput computational design system will fuse lab-stage chemical sensor with supplementary sensors to drastically improve real-world selectivity while preserving the laboratory sensitivity. These fused sensors, in combination, will be able to differentiate interferents far beyond the capability of any one sensor. The problem of drift will be solved by using sufficiently low-cost e-noses such that they can be economically discarded after drifting to the background threshold (approximately 10-24 hours). Moreover, the developed technology will also allow the design and modelling of strategic interferents to serve as sensor simulants.