November 27 - December 2, 2016
Boston, Massachusetts
2016 MRS Fall Meeting

Symposium PM4-Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring

The urban population, which is 54% of the world’s population now, is continuously increasing and expected to reach 66% by year 2050 according to the United Nations. This adds enormous stress on the urban environment, which is characterized by an increase in gaseous and liquid pollutants. Consequently, there is an increased need to monitor the environmental conditions of urban areas because of the well-known impact of ambient air on people’s health and wellbeing.

Solid state sensors have been investigated and developed for more than 30 years and are deployed in different applications and scenarios in recent years. Environmental monitoring now demands new materials, fabrication technologies and devices with improved performance.

Nanotechnologies, including nanostructured materials for sensing, chemical sensors, portable systems and commercial devices, provide a challenging opportunity to create a new generation of sensor-systems for air quality control and efficient energy systems. Functional nanomaterials (i.e. nanowires, nanotubes, graphene, nanoparticles of metal-oxide, carbon-nanostructures, large band-gap semiconductors, metals, plastics, polymers) with new sensing properties (detection at ppb-level, high sensitivity and selectivity), self-heating and durable operations for low-powered (tens of µW to tens of mW) devices are key elements in air quality measurement at indoor and outdoor level. Additionally, the sensing material can be prepared on different type of substrates (semiconductor, glass, metal, plastic, paper) with different sensing behavior.

Modeling provides a tool for tailor-made nanomaterials for specific purposes and applications. In order to realize functional improvements in packaging, both testing and aging investigations are also very important.

Topics will include:

  • Hybrid materials and nanocomposites for chemical sensing
  • Catalytic sensing materials
  • Metal oxides for chemical sensing
  • Carbon-based materials for chemical sensing
  • Advanced semiconducting gas sensing materials
  • Modeling of sensor material/gas interaction
  • Polymeric materials for chemical sensing
  • Materials and processes for chemical sensor packaging
  • New nano sensors for monitoring gaseous and liquid pollutants
  • Surface-sensitive spectroscopies for studying sensor material/gas interaction

Invited Speakers:

  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _0 (Vienna University of Technology, Austria)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _1 (U.S. Geological Survey, USA)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _2 (Cambridge CMOS Sensors Ltd, United Kingdom)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _3 (Siemens AG, Germany)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _4 (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _5 (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _6 (National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _7 (Universitat de Barcelona, Spain)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _8 (Linköping University, Sweden)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _9 (University of Brescia, Italy)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _10 (PARC, USA)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _11 (Kyushu University, Japan)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _12 (Suzhou University, China)
  • PM4_Novel Materials, Fabrication Routes and Devices for Environmental Monitoring _13 (University of Alberta, Canada)

Symposium Organizers

Albert Romano-Rodriguez
Universitat de Barcelona (UB)
Department of Electronics and Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (IN2UB)
Spain

Ruby Ghosh
Michigan State University
Department of Physics and Astronomy
USA

Meyya Meyyappan
NASA
Ames Research Center
USA

Michele Penza
ENEA
Lab. of Functional Materials and Technologies for Sustainable Applications - Brindisi Research Center
Italy

Topics

devices electronic material nanoscale nanostructure sensor simulation