Nanowire arrays for trace vapor preconcentration
AssigneeThe Government of the United States of America, as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
InventorsBraden C. Giordano, Pehr E. Pehrsson, Kevin J. Johnson, Daniel Ratchford, Christopher Field, Junghoon Yeom
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Abstract
Disclosed herein is a method of providing a structure having two electrodes connected by nanowires, exposing the structure to an analyte that can adsorb onto the nanowires, and passing an electrical current through the nanowires to heat the nanowires to desorb the analyte. Also disclosed herein is an apparatus having the above structure; a current source electrically connected to the electrodes, and a detector to detect the analyte.
Claims18
A method comprising:
- providing two or more structures, each structure comprising:
- a first electrode;
- a plurality of nanowires comprising a chemically selective surface perpendicular to the first electrode, each nanowire having a first end in contact with the first electrode;
- and
- a second electrode in contact with a second end of each nanowire;
- wherein different structures have chemically selective surfaces that are selective for different analytes;
- exposing the structures to a sample suspected of containing an analyte that can adsorb onto the nanowires of at least one of the structures;
- and
- passing an electrical current through the nanowires to heat the nanowires to a temperature at which the analyte will desorb from the nanowires.
An apparatus comprising:
- two or more structures, each structure comprising:
- a first electrode;
- a plurality of nanowires comprising a chemically selective surface perpendicular to the first electrode, each nanowire having a first end in contact with the first electrode;
- and
- a second electrode in contact with a second end of each nanowire;
- wherein different structures have chemically selective surfaces that are selective for different analytes;
- a current source electrically connected to each of the first electrodes and each of the second electrodes;
- and
- a detector configured to detect an analyte that may be desorbed from the nanowires.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.