A natural substance produced by bees could play a future counter-terrorism role, based on recent research carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The researchers involved in it have developed a sensor device incorporating bee venom components that are sensitive enough to pick up on just one molecule of an explosive substance.
The components are fragments of protein called bombolitins, which have a high hydrophobic amino-acid residue concentration, and which the MIT research team used as an inner carbon nanotube lining. These nanotubes measured just a single atom in thickness, were hollow inside and were manufactured from nothing but pure carbon.
Air that had been in contact with a variety of different explosives was streamed towards the nanotubes and the reactions were recorded. These reactions were displayed in the form of wavelength shifts that occurred when the air molecules adhered to the bombolitins
Beyond the reach of human eyes, these wavelength changes were observed by a microscope and, using the bee venom explosives sensor technique, the MIT researchers now claim to be able to give different explosive types a different fluorescent profile.
It's these variations that give their products the potential to tell one type of explosive apart from the next and to function at a higher level than the current generation of explosives detection technologies. These employ spectrometry to assess the make-up of charged particles in the air but cannot function at the kind of single molecule level that the MIT devices can.
"Ion mobility spectrometers are widely deployed because they are inexpensive and very reliable", the head researcher involved, Professor Michael Strano, explained in an MIT press release.
"However, this next generation of nanosensors can improve upon this by having the ultimate detection limits - single molecules of explosives at room temperature and atmospheric pressure."
"If there's one molecule in a sample, and if you can get it to the sensor, you can now detect and quantify it."
The device is currently in mid-patent application status and, reportedly, both civilian and military organisations have expressed interest in it.
See also:
Companies supplying Explosives Detection
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