Optical and Microcantilever-Based Sensors for Real-Time In Situ Characterization of High-Level Waste (81924)
Fundamental research is being conducted to develop sensors for cesium, strontium, and pertechnetate that can be used to analyze these species in high-level waste (HLW) process streams. Sensors for these species will be combined with sensor elements for OH-, K+, and Na+ in an array that will allow interferences to be corrected. Two fundamentally different approaches are being pursued, having in common the dependence on highly selective molecular recognition agents. In one approach, an array of chemically selective sensors with sensitive fluorescent probes to signal the presence of the constituent of interest will be coupled to fiber optics for remote analytical applications. The second approach employs sensitive microcantilever sensors that have been demonstrated to have unprecedented sensitivity in solution. Selectivity in microcantilever-based sensors is achieved by modifying the surface of a gold-coated cantilever with a monolayer coating of an alkanethiol derivative of the molecular recognition agent. The microcantilever-based sensors function by converting molecular complexation into surface stress. The fundamental technology for fiber optic and cantilever sensors has been developed by our collaborators David Walt and Thomas Thundat, respectively, and the goal of this project is to adapt molecular recognition chemistry to the methods already being employed. Molecular recognition with these sensors is achieved using ionophores constructed with the three dimensional architecture provided by calix[4]arenes, a widely used platform for metal ion complexation.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., Oak Ridge, TN; Tufts University, Medford, MA (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC) (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 839065
- Report Number(s):
- EMSP-81924-2004; R&D Project: EMSP 81924; TRN: US0501574
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Jun 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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