Silicon Phthalocyanines for low cost ammonia sensors

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Ammonia is an essential chemical for several global industries including agriculture, pharmaceuticals, food processing, energy storage, and medicine. Together these industries generate over 175 million tons of ammonia per year. Despite its widespread use ammonia is highly toxic and damaging to human health and the environment. Effective sensors are essential for ensuring occupational health and safety when handling ammonia gas. These sensors must detect low levels of ammonia quickly and selectively, especially in environments containing other gases. Designing sensors capable of operating at room temperature and high humidity is a major challenge. Though many sensing technologies exist they often require high operating temperatures (up to 400 °C), do not respond quickly, or are not sensitive or selective for ammonia at room temperature. This project will create ammonia sensors that combine rapid response with high selectivity and the ability function over a wide range of humidity conditions at room temperature. This will have a direct impact on the Canadian economy by developing widely sought after sensors for use across multiple global industries. Canadians and Canadian companies will benefit from this technology as it will help safely expand the use of ammonia. Innovations in sensor development will simultaneously address the demands of industry and limit the negative impacts of ammonia on human health and the environment.