The ability to build materials on the scale of specific molecules will allow more efficient methods of chemical and biological detection, he says. According to S. Thomas Picraux, director of the physical and chemical sciences center at Sandia National Laboratories, and Michalske, some of the first nanotechnology applications to enter the market will be in chemical and biological detectors and in micromechanical applications. The device is a prototype sensing microsystem designed to detect chemical and biological substances such as explosives and biological warfare agents. ChemLab relies on the integration of chemical, electronic, micromechanical and photonic devices into a single microsystem. Measuring only 1 centimeter on each side, nanostructured materials are incorporated into the chemical preconcentrators used to collect selected molecules.
Detection is based on integrated optical fluorescence and piezoelectric wave detectors.
Nanotechnology can also be applied to a number of existing materials or be used to create entirely new substances, Picraux says. I can build structures that use nanoporous materials and use these as a front end, a preconcentrator in a microchemical laboratory called ChemLab on a chip. With chemical and biological agents, the preconcentrators greatly increase detection capability by being tailored to accept these materials. These structures can also be integrated with a molecular coating designed to preferentially capture specific molecules, Picraux adds. In atomic-level construction, atoms are carefully deposited in layers.