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

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的长期影响/商业潜力有两个主要组成部分。 首先，该项目有可能通过为节能建筑提供低成本空气质量传感器的开发资金，降低该国的总体能源消耗。 其次，该项目将通过低成本、低功耗的甲烷（天然气）传感器技术提高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、尺寸和功耗比目前的解决方案低10倍。 所提出的甲烷传感器将满足几个目前未满足的需求。 其中包括通过实现天然气分配系统的甲烷泄漏检测来增强公共安全，以及通过实现危险环境中更多更好的甲烷检测来保护第一响应者。这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目将开发世界上最多孔的材料，金属有机框架（MOFs）作为传感材料。 十多年来，MOFs一直是材料科学研究中的一个活跃话题，但它们尚未找到商业应用。 该项目有望成为这一令人兴奋的新材料类别的首次商业化。 到目前为止，已经确定了近40，000种不同的MOF结构。 这项工作的关键是使用计算机模型和实验室实验的组合来优化选择性和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商业原型甲烷传感器“芯片上”，该传感器由具有MOF涂层的固态质量传感器组成，该涂层已被调谐用于感测甲烷。

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.