Single crystal metal oxide nanowires prepared by electrospinning.
Image courtesy of Perena Gouma
Electronic "Nose" Functions
as a Chemical Detector
Perena Gouma, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
and Director of the Center for Nanomaterials and Sensor Development, is developing
new chemical sensors and detection systems based on transition metal oxide
nano-wires and composite nano materials. With funding from the National Science
Foundation and in collaboration with colleagues in Materials Science as well
as Pathology, she is developing new sensing elements that react upon exposure
to trace amounts of toxic chemicals and then change in ways that can be measured,
thereby providing indicators for both the presence and the amount of the toxin.
These sensor elements could become the core of devices that could be used rapidly
to detect and identify a toxic release, whether from terrorist action or accident,
as well as providing a non-invasive means to diagnose certain diseases through
their exhaled metabolites, potentially including asthma, lung disease and rheumatologic
disorders.