I-Corps: Open-path, compact nitrous oxide sensor using quantum cascade laser spectroscopy

一氧化二氮（N2 O）是一种重要的温室气体，对大气排放的限制很差。为了帮助满足某些社会需求并最大限度地减少对环境的影响，有必要确定以最小经济成本减少N2 O排放的做法。现有的商用N2 O仪器由于其非常高的功耗、大质量和笨重的尺寸而在现场环境中使用可能具有挑战性。很少有传感器（如果有的话）可以在现场环境下或作为传感器网络的一部分测量N2 O排放。通过这个项目，研究人员提出了一个基于量子级联激光光谱的原型开路N2 O传感器。该项目在大气/温室气体研究界、生物医学传感、汽车排放和车辆燃烧以及工业气体监测方面具有潜在的应用。商业可行性的成功示范可能会导致一个有效的途径，以了解温室气体排放和提供数据，以改善缓解做法，最小的经济损失。目前，研究温室气体通量、氮循环和空气质量的研究人员几乎没有传感器来了解一氧化二氮的排放。此外，拟议的活动还可应用于汽车排放、燃烧诊断和过程控制、生物医学传感和工业痕量气体监测。

Atmospheric nitrous oxide (N2O), an important greenhouse gas, has poorly constrained emissions to the atmosphere. To help meet certain societal needs and minimize effects on the environment, it is necessary to identify practices that mitigate N2O emissions at minimal economic costs. Existing commercial N2O instrumentation may be challenging to use in field environments due to their very high power consumption, large mass and bulky size. Few, if any, sensors are available that can measure N2O emissions under field environments or as part of sensor networks. Through this project, researchers propose to demonstrate a prototype open-path N2O sensor based upon quantum cascade laser spectroscopy. This project has potential applications for the atmospheric/greenhouse gas research community, biomedical sensing, automotive emissions and vehicle combustion as well as industrial gas monitoring. Successful demonstration of the commercial viability may result in an efficient path toward understanding greenhouse gas emissions and providing data to improve mitigation practices with minimal economic damage. Currently, researchers studying greenhouse gas fluxes, the nitrogen cycle, and air quality have few sensors available to understand nitrous oxide emissions. In addition, the proposed activities also have application in automotive emissions, combustion diagnostics and process control, biomedical sensing, and industrial trace gas monitoring.