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Researchers at Purdue University in Indiana have developed the sensor, which is inspired by an organ near a shark’s mouth called the ampulla of Lorenzini that is capable of detecting small electric fields from prey animals.
“This organ is able to interact with its environment by exchanging ions from seawater, imparting the so-called sixth sense to sharks,” said Zhen Zang, a research associate on the study, which was published today in the journal Nature.
Zhang and colleague Derek Schwanz created a sensor that mimics that ability using samarium nickelate, a quantum material which can conduct protons very fast. The quantum effect causes the material to undergo a “phase change” from a conductor to an insulator, which allows it to act as a sensitive detector.
“We have been working on this for a few years,” said Shriram Ramanathan, a professor of materials engineering at Purdue.
“We show that these sensors can detect electrical potentials well below one volt, on the order of millivolts, which is comparable to electric potentials emanated by marine organisms. The material is very sensitive. We calculated the detection distance of our device and find a similar length scale to what has been reported for electroreceptors in sharks.”
The material has been tested in a wide range of simulated ocean water environments, and has been found to be resistant to corrosion, and to function well in the cold ambient temperatures typical of such depths.
The technology could be used to monitor ocean ecosystems, or track the movement of ships for commercial or military applications. It was partly funded by the US Army Research Office, the Air Force Office of Scientific The researchers say the next step is to test the device in real oceans.
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