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    A More Accurate Sensor for Lead Paint

    September 12, 2016, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    The stimuli-responsive nature of molecular gels makes them appealing platforms for sensing. The biggest challenge is in identifying an appropriate gelator for each specific chemical or biological target. Due to the similarities between crystallization and gel formation, we hypothesized that the tools used to predict crystal morphologies could be useful for identifying gelators. Herein, we demonstrate that new gelators can be discovered by focusing on scaffolds with predicted high aspect ratio crystals. Using this morphology prediction method, we identified two promising molecular scaffolds containing lead atoms. Because solvent is largely ignored in morphology prediction but can play a major role in gelation, each scaffold needed to be structurally modified before six new Pb-containing gelators were discovered. One of these new gelators was developed into a robust sensor capable of detecting lead at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limit for paint (5000 ppm).

    Developing a Gel-Based Sensor Using Crystal Morphology Prediction

    A new molecular gel recipe developed at the University of Michigan is at the core of a prototype for a more accurate lead paint test to see whether a paint chip contains >5,000 parts per million of the poisonous metal that was banned from pigments in 1978. Government agencies use that threshold to define paint as “lead-based” and the EPA requires that home test kits can differentiate above and below it. Yet these home kits have a wide margin of error and they produce many false positives, the researchers say.

    The new test is more clear and accurate than its counterparts. It consists of a vial that holds paint thinner and a sprinkling of certain salts that, when combined with the right concentration of lead, form a gel...

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