The researchers at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-D) have developed a low cost state-of-the-art
indigenous version of breath analyzer used to detect alcohol content in blood from one’s breath sample.
They developed ‘smart alcohol sensors’ to be implanted in breathalyzers which are used to detect the level of intoxication of individual suspected of driving while under the influence of alcohol. It detects the percentage of alcohol or ethanol in blood by detecting PPM of ethanol/alcohol in one’s breath. The IIT researchers claim that the indigenous variety developed by them is not only cost-efficient but also more ‘effective’ as compared to alternatives available in the market and those used by the police.
Commercial alcohol sensors/breathalyzers that are available in the market including the one used by police to detect drunken-drive cases have mostly imported parts (only assembled in India) and cost somewhere between Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000. While that developed by IIT would cost approximately Rs 500 only, told IIT. Also commercial sensors available in the market are fuel cell based and are to be kept moist for keeping it operative.
The IIT-D made alcohol sensors are small silicone based chips which can be produced large in number thus reducing the cost or per chip. The one produced by IIT are wafer scalable which eventually makes it cost effective.
Dr. Saakshi Dhanekar , INSPIRE Faculty at Centre for Applied Research in Electronics (CARE) is working on the project since last 8 years. She along with the PhD student Priyanka Dwivedi is out with the advanced stage of the breathalyzer after developing its laboratory Prototype.
Also, the most attractive feature of this sensor is room temperature operation, which was achieved by using a combination of metal oxide and silicon nanostructures.
“Our alcohol sensor even works at room temperature, while the one that are commercially available has inbuilt heater to provide the optimum temperature required for it to operate. In our version it has been done away with,” said Saakshi Dhanekar, CARE, IIT-D.
She also claimed that the device developed by them has quite good ‘sensitivity’ towards ethanol (alcohol) and also high level of ‘selectivity’ as compared to sensors available in the market.
With high selectivity the breathalyzer would work with more accuracy as it can detect ethanol even if in small traces in ones breathe from that of other compounds like methanol, acetone, toluene, benzene etc that may be present in ones breath and also in atmosphere.
However, for its large scale commercial production its must for the industries to step-in and show interest and IIT-Delhi is trying to scale up industries for it.
