Do you want to see the smell?

2000/12/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Kimika

The University of Illinois chemists have created a kind of artificial nose capable of detecting bitter milk, chemical contaminants, poisonous gases and deadly toxins. The "nose" warns through a color change of what it has detected, as the pH paper indicates the acidity of a mixture. The role that detects odors is steam sensitive and is capable of detecting a wide variety of chemical compounds, adopting a specific color for each of them. The "nose" consists of metalomorphine, compounds similar to hemoglobin and chlorophyll. Unlike other methods, the humidity does not influence the results and the sensitivity is very high, both for a single compound and for mixtures. The researchers have already prepared a color library to know first-hand the compound to which the color change corresponds. According to the inventors we will soon have a simple, fast and cheap method.