Researchers in the US have combined tin oxide "nanobelts" with low-power microheaters to make sensors that can detect nerve agents. The devices made by Li Shi and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin and the Georgia Institute of Technology are ultrastable, highly sensitive and free from the "poisoning effect" that has previously limited the widespread use of metal oxides as sensors (C Yu et al. 2005 Appl. Phys. Lett. 86 063101).
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