Ashwin-Ushas Corporation — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: In unrelated ongoing work, this firm has developed, for a wide variety of applications (in

Description

In unrelated ongoing work, this firm has developed, for a wide variety of applications (including warfighters"clothing in CBD environments for DTRA), a unique, patented technology that has, as its core, metalized microporous membranes functionalised with conducting polymers, in what are essentially electrochemical devices. These breathable, lightweight (800 g/m^2), conducting-polymer-based"skins"are readily convertible to voltammetric sensors with a surface (i.e., sensing) area far larger than possible with fiber-based sensors, CHEMFETS or other alternatives. Coupled with very selective dopants or bio derivatives, they also yield far higher selectivity/sensitivity than alternatives. Operating temperatures are (-)60 to (+)90 C with ionic liquid electrolytes developed for the spacecraft application. With sophisticated, inexpensive interrogation and processing possible with voltammetric data (sharp differentiation of proximate peaks), the sensors have far greater selectivity and sensitivity than alternative technologies. Voltammetric interrogation can be built into an inexpensive, programmable, battery-powered microcontroller, with low power consumption (micro-W/cm2), sensing multiple analytes in one interrogation. Preliminary work carried out specifically for this proposal with agent simulants is cited. The proposed work will fabricate, test sensors with a number of variables (dopants, bio-derivatives, voltammetric interrogation waveforms), to identify sensors with the best selectivity/sensitivity.