Smart Portable System for VOCs detection

¤ About the project

Most human environments are characterised by the presence of a large number of chemical substances which mainly belong to the group of volatile organic compounds (VOC). Numerous studies revealed the toxic and carcinogenic effects of these VOCs which usually can be found in indoor air, but the tools for the detection of VOCs are still not very precise and too expensive.
The project will develop new sensors based on nano MOX and CNT materials for VOC detection, integrated into a smart portable system providing quantitative information about the concentration of Formaldehyde and Benzene in indoor air.

¤ Objectives:

The main goal of the project is to design and demonstrate the prototype of new sensors for VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds), detection together with associated electronics for signal reading, processing, acquisition, analysis and diagnosis, providing at the end a Smart portable system to be used in houses or working environment. 

The general objectives of the project, in correlation with the Call 2018 are: a) Development of a smart portable system for VOCs detection monitoring formaldehyde and benzene in indoor air including conductometric MOX and MWCNT based microsensors, data processing and software development; b) increasing the international cooperation c) providing multi-disciplinarily in the project and d) providing socio-economic benefits.

¤ Technical objectives

• Integrated Conductometric Microsensors design and fabrication. On the same chip we will realise in a unique process flow on “four arms suspended silicon (40 microns thick) membrane”: the transducer, the MOX deposition and patterning, the micro heater, the metallic connections layer and at the end the assembly and packaging of the chip;
• Simulation and preliminary testing of thermal and electrical behaviour;
• Electronic nose concept design and implementation for VOCs detection;
• New materials development for sensors and thin layer deposition techniques: nanowires and nanotubes SnO₂, TiO₂, ZnO, NiO, bi and tricomponent oxides (SnO₂/TiO₂, NiO/Al₂O₃, etc), MWCNT. Magnetron sputtering-combinatorial method, ALD-covering the big surface of porous layers and chemical methods (sol-gel) will be used for material deposition;
• Characterisation of new materials (ICF, MFA: spectroscopic ellipsometry, ion backscattering, XRD, XRF,  electron microscopy, gas chromatography);
• Sensors testing, characterization and calibration;
• Technology demonstration; 
• System design and fabrication for low power consumption and high portability;
• Software development; Bluetooth communication on mobile phone;
• Smart System prototyping (TRL 6).

Dr. Carmen MOLDOVAN
E-mail: carmen[dot]moldovan[at]imt[dot]ro
Tel:  +40-21-269.07.70; +40-21-269.07.74; (int. 31)
Fax: +40-21-269.07.72; +40-21-269.07.76;
Website: www.imt.ro