Browsing by Subject "in-tube extraction"

This paper features two parts; a literature review discussing the recent development in using electrochemical gas sensors for pollutant detection and the use of sensor nodes in real-life locations, and an experimental section focusing on the kinetic study of nitrogen containing compounds utilizing in-tube extraction device. Growing interest towards personal safety have led to development of low-cost electrochemical sensors for personal safety, indoor air quality and leak detection applications. Heterojunctions and light illumination have emerged as an effective way to improve sensor performance, but the selectivity of electrochemical sensors remains relatively poor. Multiple sensors can be combined to create ‘E-noses’ which significantly improve the selectivity and compound identification. These E-noses have been deployed in some indoor locations, either being stationary in sensor networks or moved around by a robot or drone. All approaches have benefits and caveats associated to them, with the differences between individual sensors limiting sensor network use, and slow response and recovery times limiting the use of moving sensors. A novel micropump system was constructed to be used in the active air sampling together with in tube extraction (ITEX) and thermal desorption gas-chromatography (TD-GC-MS). The repeatability of this method was tested in a kinetic study of 10 selected nitrogen containing compounds in a custom-built permeation chamber. The breakthrough times and volumes of the compounds were investigated. Kinetic modelling was successful for 9 out of the 10 compounds with 1 compound behaving significantly different from the rest. The breakthrough times were always over 20 minutes and breakthrough volumes were around the 1000 ml region. Reproducibility was tested with multiple ITEX’s and samples were taken from five indoor locations. Three of the tested compounds were found in some of the samples.