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Demonstration of a Unique Nanotube-Based Arsenic Detector

Award Information
Agency: Department of Defense
Branch: Air Force
Contract: FA9302-05-C-0004
Agency Tracking Number: F041-302-2914
Amount: $740,713.00
Phase: Phase II
Program: SBIR
Solicitation Topic Code: AF04-302
Solicitation Number: 2004.1
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2004
Award Year: 2005
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2005-04-29
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2011-03-01
Small Business Information
200 Yellow Place, Pines Industrial Cente
Rockledge, FL 32955
United States
DUNS: 175302579
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: No
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Russell Davis
 PI/Electrical Engineer
 (321) 631-3550
 rwd@mainstream-engr.com
Business Contact
 Michael Rizzo
Title: Controller
Phone: (321) 631-3550
Email: mar@mainstream-engr.com
Research Institution
N/A
Abstract

Arsenic contamination in water supplies poses a severe health risk to world-wide populations. The US EPA has recently lowered As water standards from 50 ppb to 10 ppb to address this risk. Many states, including California, either have passed or are soon to pass even stricter regulations. Currently available As detection methods suffer from numerous drawbacks including non-real-time, costly, bulky, complicated, and inaccurate. The sensor demonstrated in Phase I overcomes all these obstacles. Carbon nanotubes have found exciting new applications in technologies ranging from batteries to heat transfer, and sensor technologies are now proving to hold equal potential. In Phase I, the feasibility of using ionization-based carbon nanotube sensors for As detection was successfully demonstrated by fabricating carbon sensors and measuring breakdown voltages and the variation of discharge current as a function of concentration. The objective of the Phase II effort is to optimize the carbon nanotube manufacturing process to achieve maximum performance and lower operating voltages, design the extraneous sub-systems, and test the complete sensor. Optional tasks handle prototype system installation and field testing and an investigation of manufacturing quality control. By the end of Phase II, a full prototype sensor will have been developed, fabricated, and tested.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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