Metal Ion Analysis Using Near-Infrared Dyes and the ''Laboratory-on-a-Chip''

The primary objective of this project is to develop a sensitive and selective, portable sensor for radionuclides and heavy metals that utilizes a ''laboratory-on-a-chip'' platform for enabling low-cost, timely characterization of DOE remediation sites. This will be accomplished by synthesizing a new class of metal complexation ligands that are covalently linked to red fluorescing dyes, and utilizing these dyes for the selective quantitation of target metal pollutants through their selective separation down the microchannel of a ''laboratory-on-a-chip.'' Inexpensive, compact light sources will be utilized as excitation sources, and detection will be achieved using compact, inexpensive, photodiode array detectors