{"id":11786,"date":"2017-03-23T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-03-23T06:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=11786"},"modified":"2017-03-23T06:00:02","modified_gmt":"2017-03-23T06:00:02","slug":"sensing-harmful-molecules-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/sensing-harmful-molecules-light\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensing harmful molecules with light"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ultra-sensitive devices are being developed to detect biological and chemical compounds.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Light waves that travel on insulating or dielectric materials such as glass can increase the sensitivity of optical sensors and may be available commercially within a few years.
Credit : Science and Technology of Advanced Materials<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) devices are the benchmark in optical sensing. They are used for detecting biomarkers of disease, discovering drugs, analysing chemicals, ensuring food quality and safety, and detecting pollutants in our environment. SPR devices can detect molecules within a few hundred nanometres of their metal surfaces. When a target molecule binds to sensing molecules placed on the device\u2019s surface, this alters the path of light travelling through the medium, changing its \u2018refractive index\u2019. This change is used to indicate the molecule\u2019s presence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists are working on improving the sensitivity, compactness and cost of SPR devices by modifying the materials used to make them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brian Corbett and Muhammad Khan of University College Cork in Ireland reviewed the latest research in the field of \u2018Bloch surface wave\u2019 devices, publishing their findings in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bloch surface waves (BSW) are light waves that travel on the surface of insulating \u2014or \u2018dielectric\u2019\u2014materials, such as glass. Researchers are testing the use of dielectric materials, instead of the metals typically used for the surfaces of SPR devices, to develop BSW devices. By doing so, they are detecting even smaller changes in the material\u2019s refractive index.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Light waves that travel on insulating or dielectric materials such as glass can increase the sensitivity of optical sensors and may be available commercially within a few years.
Credit : andreadonetti \/ 123rf<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBloch surface waves can be used for a variety of sensing applications,\u201d says Corbett. \u201cThey can also be potentially used as a platform for compact integrated optical circuits,\u201d he adds. Corbett expects BSW devices to become commercially available in the coming few years.<\/span><\/p>\n

Corbett and Khan designed a simple BSW sensor, employing silicon as its surface material, which they believe has practical advantages due to the ease with which it delivers and detects light waves.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe research shows that surface waves can be easily generated and they provide a sensitive measure to detect the binding of a material at a surface,\u201d says Corbett. \u201cThese sensors can provide real-time sensing and may be a way to screen for the presence of biomarkers for different diseases, such as cancer and Alzheimer\u2019s disease, at the doctor\u2019s surgery.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

BSW sensors still need to be tested for their durability in real environments, says Corbett. The team\u2019s aim is to develop an on-chip sensing platform with high sensitivity that can ultimately be used in bench top or even smartphone-based devices, he says, with potential application in water quality monitoring.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ultra-sensitive devices are being developed to detect biological and chemical compounds. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) devices are the benchmark in optical sensing. They are used for detecting biomarkers of disease, discovering drugs, analysing chemicals, ensuring food quality and safety, and detecting pollutants in our environment. SPR devices can detect molecules within a few hundred nanometres […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medicine","category-other"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",1121,883,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361-300x236.jpg",300,236,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361-768x605.jpg",750,591,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361-1024x807.jpg",750,591,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",1121,883,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",1121,883,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",1016,800,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",724,570,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",600,473,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",600,473,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",622,490,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",457,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",83,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",640,504,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",96,76,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/4361.jpg",150,118,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Medicine<\/a> Other<\/a>","tag_info":"Other","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}