Nanowire arrays for trace vapor preconcentration

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11046579-B2
Application number	US-201916707120-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 9, 2019
Priority date	Nov 15, 2010
Publication date	Jun 29, 2021
Grant date	Jun 29, 2021

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a method of providing a structure having two electrodes connected by nanowires, exposing the structure to an analyte that can adsorb onto the nanowires, and passing an electrical current through the nanowires to heat the nanowires to desorb the analyte. Also disclosed herein is an apparatus having the above structure; a current source electrically connected to the electrodes, and a detector to detect the analyte.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
providing a structure comprising:
a first electrode;
a plurality of nanowires perpendicular to the first electrode, each nanowire having a first end in contact with the first electrode;
wherein the nanowires comprise two or more different chemically selective surfaces; and

a second electrode in contact with a second end of each nanowire;

exposing the structure to a sample suspected of containing an analyte that can adsorb onto the nanowires; and
passing an electrical current through the nanowires to heat the nanowires to a temperature at which the analyte will desorb from the nanowires.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second electrode comprises perforations.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the nanowires and the perforations are periodically arranged.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the nanowires comprise silicon.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the chemically selective surface is an adsorbing layer, a stationary phase, or a surface functionalization.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second electrode is a continuous material.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the second electrode comprises titanium and gold.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting any desorbed analyte.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the detection is by mass spectroscopy, ion mobility spectrometry, change in fluorescence intensity of a fluorescent probe, change in resonance of a cantilever, change in frequency of a cantilever, change in resistance of a chemiresistor, or detection by a nanowire array.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
passing the desorbed analyte through a gas chromatograph before detecting the desorbed analyte.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein there are no electrodes between the sides of the nanowires.

12. An apparatus comprising:
a structure comprising:
a first electrode;
a plurality of nanowires perpendicular to the first electrode, each nanowire having a first end in contact with the first electrode;
wherein the nanowires comprise two or more different chemically selective surfaces; and

a second electrode in contact with a second end of each nanowire;

a current source electrically connected to the first electrode and the second electrode; and
a detector configured to detect an analyte that may be desorbed from the nanowires.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the chemically selective surface is an adsorbing layer, a stationary phase, or a surface functionalization.

14. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein the detector is a mass spectrograph, an ion mobility spectrograph, a fluorescence probe, a microcantilevers, a chemiresistor, or a nanowire array.

15. The apparatus of claim 12 , further comprising:
a gas chromatograph configured to pass the analyte from the nanowires to the detector.

16. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein there are no electrodes between the sides of the nanowires.

Assignees

• Us Gov Sec Navy

Inventors

• Giordano Braden C
• Pehrsson Pehr E
• Johnson Kevin J
• Ratchford Daniel
• Field Christopher
• Yeom Junghoon

Classifications

• H10D62/122

  oriented at angles to substrates, e.g. perpendicular to substrates · CPC title

• H10D62/118

  Nanostructure semiconductor bodies · CPC title

• H10D64/62

  Electrodes ohmically coupled to a semiconductor · CPC title

• H10D62/83 Primary

  being Group IV materials, e.g. B-doped Si or undoped Ge · CPC title

• G01N33/0011 Primary

  Sample conditioning (preparing specimens for investigation G01N1/28) · CPC title