Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) are chemical substances that persist in the environment, bioaccumulate through the food web, and pose a risk of causing adverse effects to human health and the environment. Most of the current instrument analytical methods, such as gas chromatography, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography, and so on, require a complicated and tedious process and is time-consuming. There is currently a pressing need for simple, robust and high sensitive strategies for the detection of POPs in different environments.

　  The research group leading by Prof. Jinhuai Liu and Xingjiu Huang in IIM, CAS has successfully prepared electronic devices to fast detect POPs in trace levels. Novel nanostructures such as spherical porous tri-walled SnO2 (Talanta 82 (2010) 409), SnO2/MWCNT nanocomposite (Analytical Methods 2 (2010) 1710) and coral-like porous hollow SnO2 (Chemical Communications 46 (2010) 472；Nanotechnology 22 (2011) 315501)have been used to fabricate sensors for POPs detection. The relevant achievements have been reported by the website of Institute of Physics.(http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/lab/46759) A novel porous anodic alumina based capacitive sensor has also be investigated for trace detection of PCBs.(Sensors and Actuators B 157 (2011) 641) To improve the selectivity of the sensor, β-Cyclodextrin has be used to modified single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT–PCD) and the novel hybridized SWCNT–PCD exhibited excellent sensing properties to 2,4,5-trichlorobiphenyl (TCB). This results have been reported by Journal of Materials Chemistry as a back cover. (J. Mater. Chem. 21 (2011) 11109).

　  These works were supported by the National Key Scientific Program - Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the One Hundred Person Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

(Meng fanli)