NEOGAS · Nanosensors for simultaneous electrical and optical monitoring of climate change gases
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2021-11-01 → 2024-01-31
- EU contribution
- €160,932
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Nanosensors for simultaneous electrical and optical monitoring of climate change gases
As the population increases and industries expand rapidly, there is a threat that is silently lingering in the air we breathe. Human activities, like burning fossil fuels and industry processes, release greenhouse gases (GHGs, CH4, CO2, N2O) contributing to climate change and global warming. These gases, known for trapping heat, create long-term environmental challenges. For example, increasing GHGs levels in the atmosphere make the world warmer, leading to extreme weather and higher sea levels. Long term exposure to these gases can also result in health issues for humans, such as respiratory problems. Thus, to make things better, it is essential to identify emission sites with high GHGs levels and determine the sources of these gases. However, the exact levels of these gases are currently challenging to detect. Our main goal from this project is to help address this problem, while also exploring economic methods to detect these gases. Our target is to detect lowest levels of CH4 and CO2, particularly below their atmospheric levels, given that CH4 possesses 80 times the warming power of CO2. When it comes to the aspects of low cost and compact design, chemiresistive gas sensors are appealing. Typically, these sensors are constructed using oxide-based nanomaterials, but they encounter issues such as high temperature and selectivity. To overcome some of these challenges, we want to replace these materials with advanced metal-organic frameworks (MOFs). Basically, MOFs are crystalline materials that are known for their large porosity and surface areas, making them valuable for sensing applications. In addition, to address the selectivity issue, we have planned an approach of multivariable sensors based on integration of an electronic nose. To achieve the project goals, we proposed four main objectives: i) synthesis/characterization of advanced MOFs, ii) design of substrates/chamber for sensing tests, iii) optimize the performance of advanced MOFs, and iv) to determine the sensing of MOFs to GHGs.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs), especially of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), is the major source of global warming and climate change. To monitor their emissions, one can find in the market highly sensitive and selective, complex, bulky and expensive instruments, used as reference measuring systems, which can only be installed in few specific locations. For an accurate spatial control of these emissions, however, large number of sensing systems need to be installed and connected, benefitting from Internet of Things (IoT) and providing the required ubiquity. Usually these devices do not need to meet the sensitivity level of the reference instruments.The present project addresses the development, fabrication and testing of gas sensors, suitable for IoT, made from advanced metal organic frameworks (MOFs) materials. These gas sensors will be multivariable devices, providing the simultaneous readout of the change of electrical and optical properties when exposed to gaseous species, in opposition to standard gas sensing devices, that deliver one single readout. This innovative approach is expected to present advantages over the standard devices, especially in terms of miniaturization, compactness and selectivity, as they are integrated nanoelectronic noses. The developed devices will be tested towards GHGs and will be benchmarked against environmental reference stations.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA · BarcelonaCoordinatorSpain
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union