Research Goal

Heavy metals are a ubiquitous and troublesome class of pollutants, and lead occupies a prominent position as a contaminant requiring constant attention.  Despite the recognized adverse effects of lead on aquatic and terrestrial biota, its presence is not actively monitored, in large part due to the lack of a field product that meets all requirements for in situ measurement of lead in ground water, i.e. rugged, reliable, sensitive, selective, and remotely operable. We are creating a highly selective and sensitive miniature sensor for lead by combining two recent advances:  (a) catalytic DNA that is reactive only to lead and which can be tagged to produce fluorescence only in the presence of the metal, and (b) nanoscale fluidic molecular gates that can manipulate fluid flows and perform molecular separations on tiny volumes of material.  We are developing the chemistry and engineering needed to create a microfluidic device for separating, sensing, and quantifying lead in a complex matrix.  This work will also manipulate this sensor platform for separation and detection of other heavy metals.  (SERDP)

Research Team:

Acknowledgement:

Work partially supported by NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center Grant #

Related Publications: