Radislav Potyrailo1
GE Global Research1
Modern gas monitoring scenarios for environmental surveillance, medical diagnostics, homeland security, and other applications demand sensors with higher accuracy and enhanced stability. Unfortunately, sensors based on classic sensing materials and traditional detection principles have inadequate accuracy and stability in outdoor, indoor, and biomedical applications. These limitations of available sensors drive innovative designs of new generation of sensors.<br/>In this talk we will pose fundamental questions on conventional principles of gas sensing and will demonstrate how modern multidisciplinary research in materials science, analytical chemistry, and electronics addresses these questions by building sensors with multifunctional adaptive capabilities. We will present our conceptually new sensor-design criteria that allow high sensor stability and multi-gas detection with individual sensors. Our individual sensors are based on the multivariable response principles. Design criteria of our multivariable sensors involve a sensing material with multi-response mechanisms to different gases and a multivariable transducer with independent outputs to recognize these different gas responses [1-3]. We will show that these new sensors quantify individual components in mixtures, reject interferences, and offer more stable response over sensor arrays. Such performance is attractive when selectivity advantages of classic gas chromatography, ion mobility, and mass spectrometry instruments are canceled by requirements for no consumables, low power, low cost, and unobtrusive form factors for Internet of Things, Industrial Internet, and homeland security applications.<br/>[1] Potyrailo, R. A. et. al., Morpho butterfly wing scales demonstrate highly selective vapour response, <i>Nat. Photonics </i><b>2007,</b> 1, 123-128.<br/>[2] Potyrailo, R. A. et. al., Towards outperforming conventional sensor arrays with fabricated individual photonic vapour sensors inspired by <i>Morpho </i>butterflies, <i>Nat. Commun. </i><b>2015,</b> 6, 7959.<br/>[3] Potyrailo, R. A. et. al., Extraordinary performance of semiconducting metal oxide gas sensors using dielectric excitation, <i>Nat. Electron. </i><b>2020,</b> 3, 280–289.