Pacific Northwest Nat. Lab: Enlisting carbon nanotubes to unmask nerve agents

3/29/04
"Yuehe Lin .. reported.. [a] successful lab test of a disposable OP sensor he fashioned from carbon nanotubes chemically fused to enzymes borrowed from the nervous system-the same enzymes that act as catalysts in neurotransmitters. The 500-nanometer-thick tubes and their bound enzymes finely pepper a 2-by-4 millimeter sensor surface. In the presence of OP, enzyme activity is dampened. The nanotubes, acting as electrodes, sense the inhibition as a muted signal and pass that information to an off-the-shelf electrochemical detector that houses the sensor." This is good but I'm not sure how it would be integrated into a field kit. Also, it's a one-use item, so that might lead to supply issues. Also, in farming areas there might be high enough background levels of OP to create false alarms.