{"id":9230,"date":"2016-07-04T10:27:16","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T10:27:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revoscience.com\/en\/?p=9230"},"modified":"2016-07-04T10:27:16","modified_gmt":"2016-07-04T10:27:16","slug":"electronic-nose-detects-pesticides-and-nerve-gas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/electronic-nose-detects-pesticides-and-nerve-gas\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic nose\u00a0detects\u00a0pesticides and nerve gas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fullwidth\"<\/a>Detecting pesticides and nerve gas in very low concentrations. An international team of researchers led by Ivo Stassen and Rob Ameloot from KU Leuven, Belgium, have made it possible.\u00a0Their findings were published in\u00a0Chemical Science<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The best-known electronic nose is the\u00a0breathalyser.\u00a0As\u00a0drivers\u00a0breathe into the device, a chemical sensor measures the amount of\u00a0alcohol\u00a0in\u00a0their\u00a0breath.\u00a0This chemical reaction is then converted into an electronic signal,\u00a0allowing the police officer to read off the\u00a0result.<\/p>\n

Alcohol is easy to detect, because the chemical reaction is\u00a0specific\u00a0and the concentration of the\u00a0measuredgas is fairly high.\u00a0But many other\u00a0gases\u00a0are complex mixtures of molecules in very low concentrations. Building electronic noses\u00a0to detect them\u00a0is thus\u00a0quite a challenge.<\/p>\n

Researchers from KU Leuven have now\u00a0built a very sensitive electronic nose with\u00a0metal-organic frameworks\u00a0(MOFs).\u00a0\u201cMOFs are like\u00a0microscopic sponges,\u201d postdoctoral researcher Ivo Stassen explains.\u201cThey\u00a0can absorb quite a lot of gas\u00a0into their minuscule pores.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe created\u00a0a\u00a0MOF\u00a0that\u00a0absorbs\u00a0the phosphonates\u00a0found in\u00a0pesticides and nerve gases.\u00a0This means you can use it\u00a0to find traces of chemical weapons\u00a0such as sarin\u00a0or to identify the residue of pesticides on food. This\u00a0MOF is the most sensitive gas sensor to date for these\u00a0dangerous\u00a0substances. Our measurementswere conducted\u00a0in cooperation with\u00a0imec, the Leuven-based\u00a0nanotechnology\u00a0research centre.\u00a0The concentrations we\u2019re dealing with are extremely low: parts\u00a0per billion \u2013 a drop of water in an Olympic swimming pool \u2013 and parts per trillion.\u201d<\/p>\n

[pullquote]This is the most sensitive sensor ever created for pesticides and nerve gas.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

The\u00a0chemical sensor\u00a0can easily be integrated into\u00a0existing electronic devices, Professor Rob Ameloot adds. \u201cYou can apply the MOF as a thin film over the surface of, for instance, an electric circuit. Therefore, it\u2019s fairly easy to equip a smartphone with a gas sensor for pesticides and nerve gas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther research will allow us to examine other applications as well,\u201d Professor Ameloot continues. \u201cMOFs can measure\u00a0very\u00a0low concentrations,\u00a0so we could use them to\u00a0screen someone\u2019s breath for diseases such as lung cancer and\u00a0MS\u00a0in an early stage.\u00a0Or\u00a0we\u00a0could\u00a0use the signature scent of a product to find out whether food has gone bad or to distinguish imitation wine from the original. This technology, in other words, offers a wide range of perspectives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An international team of researchers led by Ivo Stassen and Rob Ameloot from KU Leuven, Belgium, have made it possible. Their findings were published in Chemical Science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9231,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth-300x192.png",300,192,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",550,353,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",95,61,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",580,372,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",96,62,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/fullwidth.png",150,96,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"Research<\/a>","tag_info":"Research","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9230","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}