Chemical sensing chip that can spot cocaine

An article on BBC News reports on a low-cost chemical sensing chip developed by Qiaoqiang Gan, associate professor of electrical engineering in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, that could test people for cocaine as quickly as a breathalyzer identifies alcohol. The article quotes Nan Zhang, a PhD candidate at UB, who said, "The chips used for [surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy] are typically fabricated using expensive methods. We created our chip by depositing various thin layers of materials on a glass substrate, which is cost-effective and suitable for industrial-scale production."

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44055074