Tricorder technology advances with nanoscale discovery

Applications for the miniaturised, handheld devices include medical testing, explosives detection and food safety.

Researchers found that when paper used to collect a sample was coated with carbon nanotubes, the voltage required was 1,000 times reduced, the signal was sharpened and the equipment was able to capture far more delicate molecules.

A team of researchers from Purdue University in the US and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras performed the study, which is detailed in Angewandte Chemie.

‘This is a big step in our efforts to create miniature, handheld mass spectrometers for the field,’ said R. Graham Cooks, Purdue’s Henry B. Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry. ‘The dramatic decrease in power required means a reduction in battery size and cost to perform the experiments. The entire system is becoming lighter and cheaper, which brings it that much closer to being viable for easy, widespread use.’

Cooks and Thalappil Pradeep, a professor of chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, led the research.