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MIT creates miniature ethylene sensor to help monitor food spoilage
[R & D] instrument instrument network According to foreign media reports, MIT chemists have created a miniature sensors that can detect ethylene gas that can indicate when the fruit is mature, the researchers believe that this modification on preventing food Very useful.
Swag is a senior author of the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society's Central Science. Other authors include Darryl Fong (lead author), MIT graduate student Shao Xiong (Lennon) and visiting scholar Rafaela Da Silveira Andre. According to an article on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology website, the sensor can detect ethylene concentrations as low as 15 parts per billion, which is made of a semiconductor cylinder called carbon nanotubes that can be used to monitor fruits and Transportation and storage of vegetables.
Swager said in the article: "People have always needed better food management and reduced food waste. People who transport fruit want to know how the fruit is in transit and whether measures need to be taken to reduce ethylene content during transport . "
Researchers believe that ethylene is produced by most plants, and they use ethylene as a hormone to stimulate growth, maturity, and other key stages of the life cycle. Production and flowering under pressure can excessively produce ethylene, causing them to mature prematurely or wither. The USDepartment of Agriculture estimates that US supermarkets lose about 12% of their fruits and vegetables every year due to spoilage.
In 2012, Swag's laboratory developed an ethylene sensor containing tens of thousands of carbon nanotube arrays. These carbon cylinders allowed electrons to flow along them, but the researchers added copper atoms to slow the flow of electrons. When ethylene is present, it binds to copper atoms, making the electrons slower. Measuring this slowdown can reveal the ethylene content. However, such sensors can only detect ethylene levels as low as 500 parts per billion, and because the sensors contain copper, they are likely to end up being corroded by oxygen and stop working.
Based on this, Swagel recently created a new type of ethylene sensor, which is also based on carbon nanotubes, but works through a completely different mechanism, called Wacker oxidation. Instead of using metals such as copper that is directly bonded to ethylene, they used a metal catalyst called palladium, which adds oxygen to ethylene in a process called oxidation.
To test the sensor's performance, the researchers placed carbon nanotubes and other sensor components on glass slides. They then used it to monitor the production of ethylene from two flower carnations and purple sunflowers. They measured ethylene production over 5 days, allowing them to track the relationship between ethylene levels and plant flowering.
In their research on carnations, researchers found that ethylene concentrations rose rapidly on the first day of the experiment, and then soon, within a day or two, they bloomed. The purple eustoma flowers showed that the ethylene gradually increased from the first day and continued to the fourth day, and the ethylene began to decrease. Correspondingly, the flowering period of the flowers was dispersed for several days, and it did not bloom by the end of the experiment.
Researchers also investigated whether the plant food package attached to flowers affects ethylene production. They found that plants that consumed this food showed a slight delay in ethylene production and flowering, but the effect was not significant (only a few hours).