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- 2017 (5) (entfernen)
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Schlagworte
- Air quality monitoring (1)
- Ammonia (1)
- Ammonia gas sensor (1)
- Chemical reaction (1)
- Coulometric sensors (1)
- Coulometrische Sensoren (1)
- Fluorescence (1)
- Gas standard generator (1)
- Hydrogen sensor (1)
- Miniaturized sensor device (1)
Pollution through emission of toxic gases is an increasing problem for the environment. It affects similarly agricultural, industrial and urban areas. In future, environmental emissions in ambient air must be monitored at even lower concentrations as nowadays. One environmental relevant compound is ammonia and its conversion product ammonium that have strong negative impact on human health and ecosystems. Most ammonia measurements in ambient air are performed in the range below 1000 nmol·mol-1 and thus there is a need for reliable traceable ammonia gas standards and in addition in situ analytical procedures for monitoring (in ambient air to avoid that thresholds are exceeded). Therefore, the use of reference materials is necessary for development accompanying test or for calibration, e. g. of structure-integrated sensors and mobile multi-gas sensors.
The developed gas standard generator produces gas mixtures that comply with the metrological traceability for ammonia gas standards in the desired environmentally relevant measurement range. The method is based on the permeation of ammonia through a membrane at constant temperature and pressure. The resulting ammonia penetrant gas flow is then mixed with a carrier gas flow to generate a gas standard flow of known concentration. The dynamic rage is enlarged by using a two dilution steps. Depending on the permeation rate, generable molar fractions are possible in the range nmol·mol-1 to a few µmol·mol-1. We present the design of an ammonia gas standard generator and first results of the characterisation of its individual components supporting the uncertainty assessment according to GUM for stable gas concentrations in this range. The relative uncertainty of the generated ammonia gas standard is smaller than 4 % (k = 2).
Because ammonia and its reaction products can cause considerable damage to human health and ecosystems, there is a need for reliably operating and reversibly interacting sensor materials to monitor traces of gaseous ammonia in ambient air, which at best can be used on-site for in-the-field measurements. Herein, the development of a sensor material for gaseous ammonia in the lower ppm to ppb range using optical fluorescence as transduction mechanism is presented. A fluorescent dye, which shows reversible fluorescence enhancement in the presence of ammonia is incorporated into a polymer matrix, the latter to ensure the accumulation of ammonia. The sensor material is integrated into a prototype of a miniaturized sensor device, facilitating long-term operation. To calibrate the optical sensor system a gas standard generator, producing standard gas mixtures, is used, leading to a sensitivity down to lower ppm concentrations of ammonia.
Planar coulometric sensors were tested in humidified synthetic air at various gas temperatures. Generated frost point temperature in the gas ranged from -30 °C to -60 °C and were measured by coulometric sensors and in addition by a calibrated dew point hygrometer. The gas temperatures, which were measured by a calibrated Pt100 sensor, were set to -20 °C, 0 °C, 23 °C, 40 °C, 50 °C, and 60 °C during the experiments. Empiric nonlinear functions were calculated between the generated humidity and the sensor signals. In comparison to the measured signals at 23 °C, the sensor signals were lower at the other gas temperatures. The measurements at 60 °C showed indistinct results due to a great signal noise. The response behavior of the sensors was similar at 23 °C, 40 °C and 50 °C. In contrast to that, the sensors reacted slowly at a gas temperature of -20 °C and 0 °C. In summary, with coulometric sensors it was possible to measure continuously trace humidity with an expanded uncertainty below 2 K.
The efficiency of gas sensor application for facilitating the safe use of hydrogen depends considerably on the sensor response to a change in hydrogen concentration. Therefore, the response time has been measured for five different-type commercially available hydrogen sensors. Experiments showed that all these sensors surpass the ISO 26142 standard; for the response times t90 values of 2 s to 16 s were estimated. Results can be fitted with an exponential or sigmoidal function. It can be demonstrated that the results on transient behaviour depend on both the operating parameters of sensors and Investigation methods, as well as on the experimental conditions: gas change rate and concentration jump.
Die Messung der Gasfeuchte im Spurenbereich in unterschiedlichen technisch und medizinisch relevanten Gasen erfolgte mit Sensoren, die auf dem coulometrischen Messprinzip basieren. Die verwendeten planaren coulometrischen Sensoren wurden im Frostpunkttemperaturbereich von -70 °C bis -30 °C in synthetischer Luft, Wasserstoff, Stickstoff und Distickstoffmonoxid (Lachgas) untersucht. Als Referenz für die Messungen wurde ein Präzisionstaupunktspiegel-Hygrometer verwendet. Die Gasfeuchte kann mit Hilfe der Sensoren in allen untersuchten Gasen, aber mit geänderten Kalibrierfunktionen, mit einer erweiterten Unsicherheit von kleiner als 2,1 K bestimmt werden. Für die Messungen in unterschiedlichen Gasen muss also der Einfluss der Gasmatrix auf das Sensorsignal berücksichtigt werden. So ist zum Beispiel bei Messungen in befeuchtetem Wasserstoff, aufgrund von Rekombinationseffekten, ein signifikant geändertes Sensorsignal zu beobachten.