A low-cost chemical sensing chip has been curated which can monitor drug use and presence in a persons body which has long been on the wish list of police officers and others looking to monitor drug use and curb dangerous driving.
The chip could be integrated into a handheld, portable device for detecting drugs in biological samples such as blood, breath, urine or spit.
“Currently, there is a great demand for on-site drug testing,” says Qiaoqiang Gan, PhD, associate professor of electrical engineering in the University at Buffalo School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “The high-performance chip we designed was able to detect cocaine within minutes in our experiments. It’s also inexpensive: It can be produced using raw materials that cost around 10 cents, and the fabrication techniques we used are also low-cost.”
“In the future, we are hoping to also use this technology to detect other drugs, including marijuana,” he adds. “The widening legalization of marijuana raises a lot of societal issues, including the need for a system to quickly test drivers for drug use.”
