Wednesday, June 11, 2008

US Patent 7385267 - Microfluid nanowire sensor

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7385267.html

This patent from Harvard with relatively early priority (Dec. 11, 2000) may lay claim to the basic use of nanowires or nanotubes for chemical sensing of small fluid volumes. Claims 1 and 25 read:

1. A method comprising: providing a nanowire and contacting the nanowire with a sample having a volume of less than about 10 microliters; and measuring a change in a property of the nanowire resultant from the contact.

25. An article comprising: a sample cassette comprising a sample exposure region and a nanowire, at least a portion of which is addressable by a sample in the sample exposure region, wherein the sample cassette is operatively connectable to a detector apparatus able to determine a property associated with the nanowire.

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