Sensing supplies

Two technologies based on Sandia National Laboratories’ microChemLab are soon expected to be checking for toxins and harmful bacteria in the USA’s water supplies.

The microChemLab is a hand-held “chemistry laboratory.” The liquid prototype was designed and built at Sandia/California, while the microChemLab that takes measurements in the gas phase was developed at Sandia/New Mexico.

Complete with the microChemLab, electronics, and sample collector, both devices weigh about 25 pounds and fit into a box the size of a small suitcase. The only external parts of the two sensor portable technologies are water collectors.

“Our goal is to place these sensors within utility water systems and use them to quickly determine if the water contains harmful bacteria and toxins,” says Wayne Einfeld, who heads the Sensor Development Focus Area within Sandia’s Water Initiative. “This on-site monitoring approach would enhance current utility monitoring systems that require water samples to be sent to laboratories for analysis, which sometimes takes days for results.”