GE lands $6.3 million DARPA grant to develop ‘bio-inspired’ sensors

Replicating nanostructures from the wings of Morpho butterflies, GE’s sensors would enable highly selective, near-instantaneous detection of chemical threats

GE’s sensing platform could create other industrial and healthcare applications, including emissions monitoring at power plants, water purification and food safety testing and breath analysis for disease detection

August 12, 2010 03:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time
NISKAYUNA, N.Y.–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Scientists at GE Global Research, GE’s technology development arm, in collaboration with Air Force Research Laboratory, State University at Albany, and University of Exeter, have received a four-year, $6.3 million award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop new bio-inspired nanostructured sensors that could enable faster, more selective detection of dangerous warfare agents and explosives.

” GE’s bio-inspired sensing platform could dramatically increase sensitivity, speed and accuracy for detecting dangerous chemical threats. All of these factors are critical, not only from the standpoint of stopping exposure, but in monitoring an efficient medical response if necessary to house such threats.”

Three years ago, GE scientists discovered that nanostructures from wing scales of butterflies exhibited acute chemical sensing properties. Since then, GE scientists had been developing a dynamic, new sensing platform that replicates these unique properties. Recognizing the potential for GE’s sensing technologies for bettering homeland protection, DARPA is supporting further research.

Radislav Potyrailo, a principal scientist at GE Global Research and principal investigator, said, ” GE’s bio-inspired sensing platform could dramatically increase sensitivity, speed and accuracy for detecting dangerous chemical threats. All of these factors are critical, not only from the standpoint of forestalling exposure, but in monitoring a good medical response if necessary to handle such threats.”

Potyrailo noted that GE’s sensors may also be made in very small sizes, with low production costs. This is able to allow large volumes of these sensors to be readily produced and deployed wherever needed. Unique sensing properties, combined with the scale and production advantages offered by GE’s bio-inspired sensors, could enable an array of alternative important industrial and healthcare applications, including:

Emissions monitoring at power plants
Food and beverage safety monitoring
Water purification testing for home, environmental and industrial applications
Breath analysis for disease detection
Wound healing assessment

Potyrailo said, ” Now, more than ever, sensors are being used to gather data on gas concentrations and to deliver important information about air conditions in localized regions or over large distributed areas. This data can range from warning of impending chemical or health threats to more precisely measuring air quality at a power plant. The unique sensing properties of GE’s bio-inspired sensors provide a chance to improve the quality of this sensing data and the facility to assemble this knowledge at previously unavailable levels of detail.”

DARPA Program Manager Viktoria Greanya, Ph.D., said: ” We’ve got been greatly inspired by examples of naturally occurring optical structures whose properties arise from an intricate morphology. Let’s say, the bright colors seen in butterfly wings, beetle carapaces, and peacock feathers are due in large part to their complex structure, not simply their color. DARPA’s goal in this program is to harness the most effective of nature’s own photonic structures and use advances in materials technology to create controllable photonic devices at visible and near-infrared wavelengths.”

For the DARPA project, GE has assembled a worldwide-class team of collaborators who are recognized experts in their fields. They include: Dr. Helen Ghiradella, from State University at Albany, a professional on the biology of structural color; Dr. Peter Vukusic, from the University of Exeter, a professional on the physics of structural color; Dr. Rajesh Naik, from the Air Force Research Laboratory, with a sturdy background in bio-inspired functional materials and surface functionalization; and Dr. John Hartley, also from State University at Albany, focusing on advanced lithographic nanofabrication. These team members will complement GE’s strong multidisciplinary team of analytical chemists, material scientists, polymer chemists, optical engineers and nanofabrication engineers who are contributing to development of this new platform.

About GE Global Research

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About GE:

GE is a diversified global infrastructure, finance and media company which is built to satisfy essential world needs. From energy, water, transportation and health to access to money and knowledge, GE serves customers in more than 100 countries and employs more than 300,000 people worldwide. For additional info, visit the company’s Web page at http://www.ge.com. GE is Imagination at Work.