Chemical warfare agents and hazardous substances such as sarin, S-lost, or chloropicrin can be lethal even in the smallest quantities—since they are usually colorless and odorless, they are often not detected until health damage has already occurred. The police, fire department, emergency management agencies, and the military therefore need easy-to-use, portable devices that can detect such substances on-site quickly and reliably without a high false-alarm rate. Existing methods are either inaccurate (test strips, test tubes) or can only be used in specialized laboratories (mass spectrometry).

A new development is the combination of biological recognition units (peptides) with inorganic nanoparticles to form stable, dry, and highly functional supramolecules. Chemically engineered peptides act as “molecular switches” with high selectivity, while fluorescence-based measurement and optimized sensor geometry in the lab-on-a-chip enable high sensitivity—tested with actual chemical warfare agents. End-to-end digitization links all data to the “MaterialDigital” initiative.

From a social and economic perspective, this means better protection for the public and emergency responders, reduced strain on specialized laboratories, and shorter response times in the event of an incident. The sensor concept can be applied to other fields—environmental monitoring, industrial safety, toxic industrial chemicals, or explosives—and strengthens Germany’s position in security technologies and digital materials research.