VII. Future Research

Our research efforts are focused on developing a robust wireless sensor node with tunable selectivity. Wireless sensing has been demonstrated, but there is still progress to be made in reliability and cost reduction. Our current research regarding the wireless aspect of this project involves reducing the sensitivity of the wireless node to its environment, while increasing its sensitivity with respect to the species to be detected. The main challenge for the wireless aspect of the node is the sensitivity of the RF channel to the surrounding environment and the dependence of the measurand to the RF channel. Also, we are investigating ways in which to make the carbon nanotubes a suitable transducer for a wider range of species through fictionalization and increasing its selectivity either through fictionalization or mass selective polymer coatings.