A BUBBLE GAS SENSOR FOR QUNTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal 1509912 Title: A bubble gas sensor for quantitative chemical analysis PI: Kim, Hanseup Brief description of project goals: This project aims to investigate the science of micro-scale fluidic phenomena and develop a high-performance gas sensor. a) Nontechnical Abstract: Quantification is one of the most critical parameters in many analytical applications, especially when interfacing with the chemical and biological domains, which feature enormous diversity in elements. Despite remarkable progress, miniature gas sensors still remain incapable of measuring gas quantity precisely because of issues in response drift, saturation, and limited specificity. This project proposes the development of a sensing mechanism that addresses such issues by investigating unexplored fluidic phenomena in the micro-domain and by demonstrating a microfluidic sensor. The proposed research will provide a new paradigm in gas sensing and quantification and will have a broad range of societal impacts in numerous fields, including occupational safety regulation, environmental sciences, personal and community behavioral sciences, homeland security, chemical manufacturing, and health science. In this context, the proposed project will provide a foundation for highly inter-disciplinary research and education, where students are exposed to broadly connected societal values among engineering, science, medicine, social sciences, and public policy. This program will also provide an opportunity to reach out to the K-12 community in collaboration with a local museum; to industry via intellectual property generation directed toward commercialization; and to the undergraduate and graduate students via class development on important advances in novel sensing mechanisms and microfluidics principles. b) Technical Abstract: This project aims (1) to establish a novel class of a gas sensing principle by investigating the science of microfluidic bubble formation and (2) to fabricate a bubble-based sensor which improves gas sensing performance by two orders of magnitude in comparison to existing counterparts. Specifically, this project will investigate the microfluidic gas/liquid interface properties of various gas types via microfabricated structures. An optimized prototype of a high performance gas sensor will be microfabricated to demonstrate high-precision gas quantification. By combining the fundamental science studies with experimental data, the proposed research is expected to establish fundamental and comprehensive understanding on bubble formation phenomena in the microfluidic domain, in relation to gas-liquid interfacial parameters. Such an understanding will enable this program to further demonstrate a high-precision micro gas sensor device that is capable of quantifying gas amounts with outstanding dynamic range, resolution, and linearity.