SBIR Phase II: Reliable low-cost, low-power methane sensors for explosive limit detection

从长远来看，小企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力有两个主要组成部分。 首先，该项目有潜力通过资助开发用于节能建筑的低成本空气质量传感器来减少国家的总体能源消耗。 其次，该项目将通过低成本、低功耗甲烷（天然气）传感器技术增强我们天然气基础设施的安全性。 这项工作将开发一种甲烷（天然气）传感器原型，其成本、尺寸和功耗比当前解决方案低 10 倍。 拟议的甲烷传感器将满足一些目前未满足的需求。 其中包括通过对天然气分配系统进行甲烷泄漏检测来增强公共安全，以及通过在危险环境中进行更多更好的甲烷检测来保护急救人员。这个小型企业创新研究 (SBIR) 第二阶段项目将开发世界上多孔性最高的材料金属有机框架 (MOF) 作为传感材料。 十多年来，MOF 一直是材料科学研究的热门话题，但尚未找到商业应用。 该项目有望成为这种令人兴奋的新型材料的首次商业化。 迄今为止，已鉴定出近 40,000 种不同的 MOF 结构。 这项工作的关键是结合计算机模型和实验室实验来优化选择性、快速吸收甲烷气体的 MOF 结构。 该项目的最终目标是开发一种“芯片上”商业原型甲烷传感器，该传感器由带有 MOF 涂层的固态质量传感器组成，该涂层已针对甲烷传感进行了调整。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project in the long term has two main components. First, the development has potential to reduce the country's overall energy consumption by funding the development of low cost air quality sensors for energy efficient buildings. And second, the project will enhance the safety of our natural gas infrastructure with a low cost, low power methane (natural gas) sensor technology. This work will develop a methane (natural gas) sensor prototype with 10x lower cost, size and power consumption than current solutions. The proposed methane sensor will meet several currently unmet needs. These include enhanced public safety by enabling methane leak detection for natural gas distribution systems, and protecting first responders by enabling more and better methane detection in hazardous environments.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will develop the world's most porous materials, Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as a sensing material. MOFs have been an active topic in material science research for over a decade, but they have yet to find a commercial application. This project promises to be the first commercialization of this exciting new class of materials. Nearly 40,000 different MOF structures have been identified to date. The crux of this work is to use a combination of computer models and laboratory experimentation to optimize a MOF structure that selectively and rapidly absorbs methane gas. The end goal of this project is to develop a commercial prototype methane sensor 'on a chip' that consists of a solid state mass transducer with the MOF coating that has been tuned for sensing methane.