Functionalization layers for CO2 sensing using capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers
(2012)
Sensing of carbon dioxide(CO2)using inexpensive, miniaturized,and highly sensitive sensors is of great interest for environmental and consumer applications. In this paper, we present four functionalization layers that are suitable for resonant sensors based on mass-loading for CO2 detection. We compare the volume sensitivities of these layers to CO2 and relative humidity (RH) by using a highly sensitive 50-MHz capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducer (CMUT) as a resonant sensor. Among the four function-alization layers, the layer based on a guanidine polymer exhibits the highest volume sensitivity to CO2 of 1.0 ppm/Hz in N2 and 3.8 ppm/Hz in air (∼45%RH). Furthermore, we report on other important characteristics of the guanidine polymer for sensing applications, including polymer saturation, regeneration, and repeatability.
Distributed sensing of gas-phase chemicals is a promising application for mesoporous materials when combined with highly sensitive miniaturized gas sensors. We present a direct application of a mesoporous silica thin film on a highly sensitive miniaturized resonant chemical sensor with a mass sensitivity at the zeptogram scale for relative humidity and CO2 detection. Using mesoporous silica thin-film, we report one of the lowest volume resolutions and a sensitive detection of 5.1 × 10–4% RH/Hz to water vapor in N2, which is 70 times higher than a device with a nontemplated silica layer. In addition, a mesoporous thin-film that is functionalized with an amino-group is directly applied on the resonant sensor, which exhibits a volume sensitivity of 1.6 × 10–4%/Hz and a volume resolution of 1.82 × 10–4% to CO2 in N2.