A better way to track hazardous inventories

For chemists who track inventory of laboratory chemicals, radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags can reveal which chemicals are in a storage space much quicker than keeping track of inventory with traditional labels or using bar codes. And because RFID readers don’t require a line of sight to their target, the tags allow scientists to track dangerous chemicals from a distance without direct interaction. You can simply point a reader in the direction of several RFID-tagged chemical containers and quickly know what’s present, says Raul Baez Lara Jr., a performance measurement specialist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). But RFID tagging often isn’t compatible with metal chemical containers, which have limited RFID adoption because metal can interfere with a tag’s radio signal. This particularly affects labs like LLNL that work with hazardous radioactive materials, light-sensitive photographic chemicals, pressurized gases, and oily liquids, which are often kept in metal containers. In a new