<title>SMART sensors for homeland security applications</title>

Abstract

New SMART approaches to fast, high sensitivity, high selectivity, low false indication, self communicating, distributed sensor networks for detection of chemical, biological and radiation threats are being developed at PNNL. These new sensors have their roots in clever combinations of high affinity ligands, self assembled monolayers, shape-specific receptor surfaces, mesoporous superstructures, rapidly fabricated single-chain antibodies, stabilized enzyme reactors and manipulated micro-beads for optical, mass, and direct electronic transduction. Assemblies of these SMART materials and structures are able to efficiently reject the bulk of highly cluttered physical environmental backgrounds, collect the product of interest with extremely high selectivity, concentrate it and present it for efficient and sensitive detection. The general construction methodology for these structures and examples of new sensor systems for detecting chemical, biological and nuclear materials of concern in the Homeland Security context is presented.