We have developed a very fast and entirely gas-phase based purification technique for carbon nanotubes (CNT) that allows removing metal and metal oxide impurities with high effectiveness. CNT agglomerates from chemical vapor deposition (CVD) synthesis which contained carbon encapsulated catalysts were injected into an atmospheric plasma torch. Very high heating rates allow for quasi-instantaneous vaporization of catalyst particles. This way, metal vapors are hyposized to break mechanically instable encapsulations and effuse from incomplete ones faster than thermally induced graphitization stabilizes such particle encapsulations. The ash content of multi-walled (MW) CNT samples was reduced to less than 15% of the initial value within a few milliseconds. Also the metal content of single-walled (SW) CNT agglomerates was significantly reduced. Repeated injection of CNT agglomerates into the plasma torch resulted in higher-purity products of improved structural integrity and increased oxidation resistance.
A 400 m² soil test field with gas injection system was built up for the purpose of large-scale validation, optimization, and characterization of a novel comprehensive monitoring method for underground gas storage areas. The method combines gas sensing technology with linear form factor for in-situ monitoring of gases in soil with the mapping capabilities of Computed Tomography (CT) to reconstruct time-series of gas distribution maps based on samples of orthogonally-aligned linear gas sensors. Several injection experiments with carbon dioxide (CO2) at different days with varying boundary conditions indicates the potential of the method for, e.g., rapid leakage detection with respect to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) issues.
The combination of RFID tags and energy efficient sensors offers promising potential for identification, diagnosis, and monitoring applications - particularly when it comes to objacts, which require continuous observation and which are difficult to access with conventional tools. This paper presents two examples as an outlook for RFID sensor systems in embedded structures and in mobile applications.
Concept for investigating mechanical and thermal impacts on distributed subsurface gas monitoring
(2016)
A multifunctional sensor in line shape was developed and introduced in previous work for measuring of gas concentrations, temperature change, and strain. A current field study focuses on a spatially distributed monitoring of subsurface CO 2 gas storage sites in near real time.
Mechanical impacts, e.g., caused by construction work, denudation, and seismic activity, can affect the integrity of underground gas storage sites. Thermal or moisture impacts, e.g., caused by weather conditions, can influence the gas Distribution behavior. In this paper, we briefly describe the setup of a CO 2 injection soil test field. This setup contains actuating elements for the investigation of mechanical and thermal impacts on distributed subsurface gas monitoring. A concept is given for evaluating these impacts and first experimental results are presented.