NANOSONIC INC. — National Aeronautics and Space Administration STTR Phase I: T6

Description

The objective of this STTR research effort is to demonstrate the use of select metal-organic framework (MOF) constructs as active, multi-analyte sensing element in spacecraft water monitoring systems. MOFs are extended one, two, and three-dimensional coordination networks with uniform porosity and large surface area. The rational selection of both the metal cluster nodes and multi-dentate linkers drive structural attributes as well as introduce environmentally sensitive behavior to the resulting material. Optical, electrochemical, and mechanical properties inherent to MOFs and sensitive to analytes present in a specific environment will be leveraged to design sensors based on NanoSonicrsquo;s established nano-membrane-based chemical field effect transistor (ChemFET) platform.nbsp;NanoSonic will combine analyte-sensitive MOFs designed during this program with our advanced nanotechnology thin-film deposition processes and ChemFET architecture to produce a series of sensors for in situ water quality monitoring.