LSU Mechanical Engineering Professor Designs Toxic Chemical Sensor
April 24, 2024
BATON ROUGE, LA – LSU Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor Manas Gartia is leading a team of researchers in designing a novel electrochemical sensor that will detect toxic chemicals in the environment. This sensor will help with environmental research, public health testing, and PFAS containment and alarm system.
“Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as ‘forever chemicals,’ are toxic chemicals found nearly everywhere on Earth and are a threat to public health,” Gartia said. “To address this problem, my team has created a novel electrochemical sensor that is portable, economical, and can rapidly detect PFAS in the environment.”
The sensor is made of a working electrode, counter electrode, and can include a reference electrode. The working electrode is comprised of a metal or metal alloy in the form of nanoparticles, wire, or nanoscale electrocatalysts such as platinum. A perfluorinated anion exchange isomer film is located within the working electrode, which may be screen printed on many surfaces such as ceramic, glass, quartz, polymers, or hydrogel substrates.
“Experimental results show these sensors do not need redox probes and have a limit of detection (LOD) less than or equal to 7 ppb in buffered or drinking water,” Gartia said.
Benefits of the novel sensor include fast results, LOD lower than tradition methods, not requiring redox-active probes (making the sensor more convenient and transportable), and the nanoscale electrocatalysts sensors have large operating temperature range (-40-300°C).
Gartia's technology, which has a patent pending, received assistance from LSU's Office of Innovation & Technology Commercialization (ITC). Helping Gartia on the project are his previous postdoc student Sushant Sahu and former LSU Chemical Engineering Associate Professor Chris Arges.
About LSU ITC
LSU ITC protects and commercializes LSU’s intellectual property. The office focuses on transferring early-stage inventions and works into the marketplace for the greater benefit of society. ITC also handles federal invention reporting, which allows LSU to receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federally funded research, and processes confidentiality agreements, material transfer agreements, and other agreements related to intellectual property.
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