A team of researchers has developed a small, low-cost device that can efficiently capture and detect airborne hazards, even at extremely low concentrations, by condensing them into water droplets.
Photo of the ABLE device. Image Credit: Bozhi Tian, Chemistry Professor and Paper Coauthor, University of Chicago.
Airborne hazardous chemicals are often dilute, mobile, and difficult to capture, yet accurately detecting them is essential to protecting both human health and the environment.
The new four-by-eight-inch device, nicknamed ABLE, was created by Jingcheng Ma, assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, along with researchers from the University of Chicago. Their findings were recently published in Nature Chemical Engineering.
ABLE’s potential is already clear in settings like hospitals, where it can detect airborne viruses, bacteria, and nanoplastics directly from the environment, offering a less invasive alternative to traditional tests such as blood draws, particularly for fragile patients like infants in neonatal intensive care.
Many important biomarkers — molecules your body produces when it’s dealing with pathogens — are very dilute in the air. They could be at the parts per billion level. Trying to find them is like locating six to seven people in the global population — very difficult.
Jingcheng Ma, Study First Author and Assistant Professor, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame
With a background in thermal science and energy systems, Ma started thinking about how biomarkers might behave if captured in liquid form. Could these airborne molecules be condensed into water droplets? Would their concentration remain consistent during that process? And would different compounds condense at different rates?
Typically, testing airborne biomarkers in their gas state requires bulky, expensive instruments like mass spectrometers. But converting those samples into liquid opens the door to more accessible tools — including paper test strips, enzyme assays, electrochemical sensors, and optical devices.
Ma added, “We discovered that many molecules can effectively enter water droplets even when their concentration is very low. We didn’t need to develop any advanced chemical systems to capture these biomarkers in water. It’s a very natural process.”
The ABLE device works by drawing in air, adding water vapor, and cooling it so that water droplets form on a surface lined with microscopic silicon spikes. These droplets concentrate airborne contaminants and slide into a reservoir, where they can be analyzed for biomarkers.
With a production cost under $200, ABLE offers a cost-effective approach for both clinical and environmental monitoring. Ma’s lab — the Interfacial Thermofluids Lab (ITL) — is now working to make the device even smaller, so it can be integrated into portable systems or robotic platforms for real-time sensing. The team is also collaborating with healthcare providers to monitor the health of newborns in critical care units.
“I like to do what I call ‘budget research,’ that is, use simple and low-cost components, but do something important that no one has achieved before. I like research that delivers something everyone can buy from the store,” concluded Ma.
Journal Reference:
Ma, J., et al. (2025) Airborne biomarker localization engine for open-air point-of-care detection. Nature Chemical Engineering. doi.org/10.1038/s44286-025-00223-9.