A little over four years ago, researchers at the University of California, Riverside, developed a sensor made from carbon nantoubes for detecting toxic chemicals. So enthusiastic were the researchers with the prospects of their technology that they launched a company, Nano Engineered Applications, that intends to add this sensor to people’s mobile phones.
While the commercial prospects of a smartphone toxin detector are still uncertain, another team of researchers has recently demonstrated a sensing device that also relies on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to detect different chemicals. Researchers from Japan’s International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics and the National Institute for Materials Science, working with collaborators from MIT, combined CNTs with a polymer and discovered that this resulting material offers a powerful sensing platform for toxic chemicals. Their results look to be the first viable demonstration of the power of sensors known as chemresistors.