Infrared Chemical Sensor for Toxic Industrial Chemicals/Toxic Industrial Materials (TICs/TIMs) Filtration Performance Monitoring

This STTR proposal addresses the need for a robust, reliable, light-weight hand-held water sensor for screening of Toxic Organic Chemicals / Toxic Organic Matter (TICs/TIMs) in filtered water supplies that are available to the Soldier in an operational setting.  While recent investment in filtration technologies by the US Army led to the development of (TICs/TIMs) filters that are compatible with the MOLLE hydration pack filtration systems, there is no way to asses the continued efficacy of the filtration systems. At the same time, if the filtration media is saturated or breached, this can put the Soldiers at risk for acute or chronic health effects if they choose to drink the water without any knowledge of the risks. We propose development of a sensor designed to assess water quality after filtering. The proposed sensor is based on cost-effective, on-chip, miniature infrared photonics integrated circuit (IR-PIC). The proposed IR-PIC platform is based on integrated infrared quantum cascade laser (QCL), IR waveguides and Quantum Cascade Detector (QCD) on a single semiconductor chip. The sensing of the TICs/TIMs is based on the vibrational analysis of infrared absorption bands. Pre-concentration of TICs/TIMs in the selective materials enables enhanced sensitivity and selectivity to toxic contaminants. Overall, the proposed sensor is expected to provide measurements of the representative classes of TICs/TIMs (heavy metal, organophosphate, volatile), and salt in any source water.