Microscale devices for detection of key pollutants in the built environment

极性挥发性有机化合物(PVOC)对大气的功能有深远的影响，许多也是有毒的空气污染物。然而，它们很难测量，是粘性的、反应性的，在某些情况下热不稳定。这些物种在建筑环境中也非常重要，对室内空气质量、气味、人体健康造成负面影响，并导致病态建筑综合症等代价高昂的影响。通过之前的NERC支持，我们开发了一种独特的微流控方法来测量大气中痕量的pVOCs水平。我们使用了一种新型的芯片实验室技术来实现这一点，该技术允许在气相中对pVOCs进行高效的化学衍生化，简而言之，它将目标分子转化为更稳定的形式，更容易检测到。一旦衍生化，pVOCs就可以使用大多数现代化学实验室中常见的分析技术，如气相色谱和质谱仪来测量。我们新技术的关键是一个微型反应器，它集成了三种实验室功能：(1)气液混合器和反应器，在其中进行衍生化；(2)受控试剂加热，以加快分析速度；(3)样品预浓缩，以实现更低的检测下限。微反应器的输出是经过处理的样品的微升流出流，它将pVOCs从气相中剥离成稳定和高度浓缩的液体形式，并准备直接引入气相色谱-质谱仪(GC-MS)或其他技术。微型反应器可以完全自动化，通过在高温下提供快速高效的衍生化反应，并使用非常低的化学体积，为原本多步骤的手动分析程序提供了高效的解决方案。这些化学物质一般是从家具、地毯、油漆和建筑材料中排放的，近年来欧盟、美国和中国引入了重要的新法规要求，产生了对简单高效测量方法的主要但尚未得到满足的需求。在欧盟销售的用于建筑环境的任何产品在投入销售之前必须符合最新的2013年建筑产品法规指令，供应商必须通过内部测试其产品或将分析外包给第三方实验室来证明这一点。因此，我们提议的后续资金创新是将一项为大气化学的利基领域开发的技术转化为与气体排放、材料测试和建筑环境相关的分析行业迫切需要的交钥匙样品制备产品。我们计划完成全功能原型设备的技术实施，并与商业合作伙伴合作，为特定行业开发演示活动。我们确定，此类专业分析设备的全球市场相对较小(以数百到数千个单位衡量)，但改进的低成本测试有助于提高产品竞争力，产生更广泛的经济影响。因此，应该更广泛地看待创新的社会和经济影响，而不是仅仅从设备销售中获得商业收入。

Polar volatile organic compounds (pVOC) have a profound impact on the functioning of the atmosphere and many are also toxic airborne pollutants. They are however very difficult to measure, being sticky, reactive and in some cases thermally unstable. These same species are also very significant in the built environment, negatively influencing indoor air quality, malodours, human health and contributing to costly effects such as sick building syndrome. Through previous NERC support we developed a unique microfluidic approach to measuring trace levels of pVOCs in the atmosphere. We achieved this using a novel lab-on-a-chip technology that allows for a highly efficient chemical derivatization of pVOCs in the gas phase, which in simple terms converts the target molecules into more stable forms that are much easier to detect. Once derivatised, pVOCs can then be measured using common analytical techniques such as gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, instruments that are found in most modern chemical laboratories.The key to our new technology is a micro-reactor that integrates together three laboratory functions: (1) a gas and liquid mixer and reactor, where derivatization takes place, (2) controlled reagent heating to speed up the analysis, and (3) sample pre-concentration to enable lower detection limits. The output from the micro-reactor is a microlitre effluent stream of processed sample that has stripped the pVOCs from the gas phase into a stable and highly concentrated liquid form, and that is ready for direct introduction to Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) or other technique. The micro-reactor can be completely automated and provides a highly effective solution to an otherwise multi-step, manual analytical procedure by providing a fast and highly efficient derivatization reaction at elevated temperatures, and using very low chemical volumesThe assessment of pVOCs in the gas phase in the built environment is a widespread problem with significant economic impacts, and for which here are few effective technical solutions. These chemicals are emitted from furniture, carpets, paints and building construction materials in general and there have been significant new regulatory requirements introduced in the EU, USA and China in recent years that have created a major but as yet unmet demand for simple and efficient measurement methods. Any product sold for the built environment in the EU must comply with the very recent 2013 Construction Productn Regulation Directives before it can be put on sale and a supplier must demonstrate this either by testing their products in-house, or outsourcing the analysis to third-party laboratories. Our proposed innovation for follow-on funding is therefore to take a technology developed for a niche area of atmospheric chemistry and translate this into a urgently required turn-key sample preparative product for the analytical industries associated with gaseous emissions materials testing and the built environment. We plan to complete the technical implementation of a fully functional prototype device and work with commercial partners to develop demonstration activities for particular industriesWe identify that the global market for such specialised analytical devices is relatively modest (measured in hundreds to low thousands of units), but that the improved lower-cost testing leads to improved product competitiveness, with much wider economic impacts . The societal and economic impact of the innovation should therefore be viewed more widely than simply the commercial revenue that might be obtained from device sales alone.