Paper-based particulate matter sensors

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During the last decade, the Canadian pulp and paper industry has been overcome with economic, financial, and organizational dislocations that firms have found difficult to address. One potential pathway for the pulp and paper industry in Canada going forward is to identify new value-added products in order to open up new markets. The goal of this project is to develop a new manufacturing and device technology that will enable the production of nanocomposite paper-based products for the Canadian pulp and paper industry's softwood market pulps. These pulps have a reputation for being superior reinforcing pulps due to the favourable position of Canadian wood in terms of climate and geography. For this project, we have partnered with Canfor Pulp Limited (CPL) who is one of Canada's major producers of Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (NBSK) pulp. The proposed technology will add value to NSBK pulp by enabling new inexpensive and environmentally friendly sensing technology with NSBK nanocomposite products, taking advantage of the unique mechanical properties of NSBK pulp. The proposed disposable paper-based particulate matter (PM) sensors will be designed for portable aerosol measurement systems to provide real-time information on PM concentration in the environment; elevated PM levels contribute to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. We will develop this technology with our second partner Nanozen Industries. The addressable annual environmental safety market for environmental monitors is around $100 million with a projected annual growth rate at over 20%. In the long term, these nanocomposite materials and our demonstration of functional paper can be further developed to open up other unique and value-added applications of Canada's softwood market pulps including other types of environmental sensors and smart packaging. These applications hold direct potential to benefit Canadians through technology transfer, commercialization, and the resulting creation of new jobs.