The Pentagon’s research arm, DARPA, has awarded scientists at GE Global Research a four-year, $6.3 million award to develop bio-inspired, nanostructured sensors to more quickly and selectively detect dangerous warfare agents and explosives.
The scientists first discovered three years ago that nanostructures from the wing scales of butterflies exhibit acute chemical sensing properties. Now, they’re working with the Air Force Research Laboratory, State University at Albany and University of Exeter to develop a new platform to replicate those properties.
Here’s what DARPA program manager Viktoria Greanya had to say, in a statement:
We have been greatly inspired by examples of naturally occurring optical structures whose properties arise from an intricate morphology. For example, the brilliant colors seen in butterfly wings, beetle carapaces, and peacock feathers are due in large part to their complex structure, not simply their color. DARPA’s goal in this program is to harness the best of nature’s own photonic structures and use advances in materials technology to create controllable photonic devices at visible and near-infrared wavelengths.
Specifically, the new sensors increase sensitivity, speed and accuracy for detecting dangerous chemical threats. The researchers say the sensors can be made in small sizes with low production costs, allowing for the volume necessary to deploy in the field.
Sensors like this aren’t new on the battlefield, and are in use today to understand gas concentrations and air conditions.
In fact, such sensors aren’t just for warfare, either. They’re also useful for applications such as:
- Industrial: emissions monitoring at power plants
- Industrial: food and beverage safety monitoring
- Industrial, environmental, and home: water purification testing
- Healthcare: breath analysis for disease detection
- Healthcare: wound healing assessment
The new sensors promise a higher level of detail, researchers say.
The research team includes SUNY-Albany’s Helen Ghiradella, an expert on the biology of structural color; Exeter’s Peter Vukusic, an expert on the physics of structural color; the Air Force’s Rajesh Naik, an expert on bio-inspired functional materials and surface functionalization; and SUNY-Albany’s John Hartley, an expert on advanced lithographic nanofabrication.
