SBIR Phase I: Laser Photoacoustic Sensor for Air Toxic and Trace Gas Compounds

该小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发激光光声光谱（LPAS）传感器，用于连续实时测量有害空气污染物（HAP）和其他空气污染物，如一氧化碳，氮氧化物和二氧化硫。该活动的智力价值在于创造一种新的操作简单，低成本，坚固，紧凑，坚固的现场部署和负担得起的环境空气和固定源污染传感器，能够同时实时测量多种污染物和有毒化合物。该仪器将使用最新先进的量子级联激光（QCL）或带间级联激光（ICL）吸收，在短时间内准确定量多种化合物（~ 40至60秒），精度为十亿分之几。这项研究的广泛/商业影响预计将在许多领域，包括：1）空气毒性测量，如环境空气和固定源污染监测、工业卫生监测、受限空间监测和过程排放监测等。2）全球大气毒性、空气污染物、温室气体和痕量物种的监测。3)军事应用。除了环境和工业应用，许多其他军事应用，包括检测化学战剂（CWA），爆炸物，TIC，可以使用该项目中开发的设备。潜在的客户包括EPA、NOAA或NASA的环境监测、DoD的简易爆炸装置探测（JIEDDO）、DHS的爆炸物探测和行李扫描（TSA）等。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project aims at developing laserphotoacoustic spectroscopy (LPAS) sensor for continuous, real-time measurements ofhazardous air pollutants (HAPs), and other air pollutants such as Carbon monoxide, nitrogenoxides, and sulfur dioxide. The intellectual merit of the activity lies in the creation of a new aoperationally simple, low cost, robust, compact, ruggedized field-deployable and affordableambient air and stationary source pollution sensor that is capable of real-time measuringmultiple pollutant and toxic compounds simultaneously. The instrument will use the newlyadvanced quantum cascade laser (QCL) or interband cascade laser (ICL) absorption toaccurately quantify multiple chemical compounds within a short period of time (~ 40 to 60seconds) with a precision of sub parts per billion.The broader/commercial impacts of this research are expected to be within numerous areasincluding: 1) Air toxic measurements, such as ambient air and stationary source pollutionmonitoring, industrial hygiene monitoring, confined space monitoring and process emissionmonitoring, etc. 2) Global atmospheric monitoring of air toxics, air pollutants, greenhouse gases,and trace species. 3) Military applications. Besides the environmental and industrial application,many other military applications including detection of Chemical Warfare Agent (CWA),explosives, TICs, can make use of the devices developed in this project. Potential customersinclude the EPA, NOAA or NASA for environmental monitoring, DoD for detection of IED(JIEDDO), the DHS for detection of explosives and scanning of luggage (TSA), etc.