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EPSRC Reference: GR/L31593/01
Title: INVESTIGATIONS INTO A NEW FORM OF HYBRID GAS SENSOR
Principal Investigator: Payne, Professor P
Other Investigators:
Persaud, Professor KC Hatfield, Dr J
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Pre Nexus Migration
Department: Instrumentation & Analytical Science
Organisation: UMIST
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 September 1997 Ends: 31 August 1999 Value (£): 146,304
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Intelligent Measurement Sys.
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Manufacturing Chemicals
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
A variety of technologies have evolved for gas, odour and aronma sensing. Some of these technologies are relatively mature, such as coated quartz crystals and metal oxide based sensors, however, none of them prove to be ideal. We propose to develop a new approach which combines the properties of quartz crystal sensors and those semi-conducting organic polymer (SOP) sensor systems. The conventional quartz crystal system can be tailored to respond to a wide range of non-polar species, whilst SOP devices are very responsive to polar molecules. We will also examine the performance of combined surface acoustic wave (SAW) and SOP sensors in order to determine which of the two approaches (quartz crystal or SAW) provides the best performance. Preliminary experiments have shown that SOP coated quartz crystals are extremely sensitive to volatiles such as ethanol, toluene and ethyl acetate, and if the measurements are based on resonant frequency change as in the conventional quartz crystal sensor, we observe performance typical of that previously reported. Similarly, if the polymer characteristics are monitored seperately, again, we see performance typical of that reported in the literature. However, we have observed enhanced performance when we treat the sensor as a two-port device.
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