A polymer that is sensitive to sub-nanolitre volumes of water could be used to map sweat pores for fingerprint analysis.
Jong-Man Kim and Chan Woo Lee at Hanyang University in Seoul and their colleagues developed a thin film made of caesium polydiacetylene that changes from blue to red in the presence of water. The authors found that a fingertip pressed on the blue film produced a pattern of red dots (pictured) that coincided with sweat pores and was visible using an optical microscope.
The sensor technology could be used to identify people by their fingerprint even if only a small part of it was visible, the authors say.
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Sweat-pore fingerprint. Nature 509, 136 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/509136a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/509136a