Succeeded in developing sensor chip one step closer to realizing cocaine's breath detector

A sensor chip has been developed that can realize equipment for detecting cocaine contained in exhaled breath. An inexpensive portable detector that can detect drugs from exhaled breath is expected to be useful in traffic inspections and the like.

Chemical sensing chip sniffs out cocaine within minutes - University at Buffalo
http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2018/05/011.html

A chemical sensor chip capable of detecting cocaine was developed by Associate Professor Qiaoqiang Gan of Buffalo University. The sensor chip is a layer of gold nanoparticles and silver nanoparticles deposited on a silver mirror surface in a layered manner. When a biological / chemical substance such as a drug adheres to the surface, the sensor chip changes the structure of the metal nanoparticles, The degree of scattering changes. It is possible to detect a compound called opioid contained in narcotics such as cocaine quickly, and it seems that it can detect not only blood, saliva, urine but also a trace amount of chemical substances contained in expiration.

The chip sensor detection method isSurface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy(SERS)It is said that it is not particularly rare, but it is epochal in that it can produce a sensor cheaply by overlaying the optical layer as a thin film. "The cost of raw materials necessary for manufacturing high-performance sensor chips that can detect cocaine contained in expiration in a matter of minutes is about 10 cents (about 11 yen), and the manufacturing cost is also very low," he says.


In the United States, traffic accidents caused by drivers taking drugs such as cocaine and marijuana are major problems, and there is a strong demand for practical application of a drug exhalation detector that can detect that drugs are being taken by traffic examination It is said that. Due to the chips developed by Dr. Gan, it is expected that practical use of inexpensive equipment which can detect drug from breath quickly with high accuracy. Dr. Gan seems to aim for further improvement of the sensor chip so that it can correspond not only to cocaine but also other drugs such as marijuana.