MIME Chemical Vapor Microsensors
MIME Chemical Vapor Microsensors
MIME Chemical Vapor Microsensors
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The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has developed a technology for detecting chemical vapors using low power, low cost, tunable microsensors. This technology is based on metal nanoparticles encapsulated by a single layer of organic molecules. When configured as a film of nanoparticles connected to a small bias current, exposure to a vapor causes conductance changes in the film. The conductance path through the film involves electron tunneling across the somewhat insulating monolayer junctions between nanoparticle conducting cores referred to as a nanometer-scale metal-insulator-metal ensemble (MIME). Tuning these MIME sensors to a particular vapor is accomplished by designing the structure of the organic molecule in the encapsulating shell to interact with that particular vapor.
References "Colloidal Metal-Insulator-Metal-Ensemble Chemiresistor Sensor" Anal. Chem. 1998, 70 (14), 2856 - 2859. "Scaling Properties of Gold Nanocluster Chemiresistor Sensors" IEEE Sensors Journal 2006, 6 (6), 1403 - 1414. "MIME Chemical Vapor Microsensors," NRL Review 2002. Available for License: US Patent No. 6,221,673; 7,189,867; 7,347,974 and US Patent Pub. No. 2011-0054202. Other related patent applications have been filed.
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