{"id":150241,"date":"2019-05-30T08:27:59","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T12:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=150241"},"modified":"2019-05-30T13:26:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T17:26:53","slug":"gas-sensor-can-take-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/05\/gas-sensor-can-take-heat\/","title":{"rendered":"A Gas Sensor That Can Take the Heat"},"content":{"rendered":"

A<\/span>utomotive and<\/span> other <\/span>energy-intensive<\/span> industries have an interest in monitoring emissions and combustion efficienc<\/span>ies of their vehicles and plants. <\/span>Incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, the primary <\/span>source<\/span> of energy for these processes<\/span>,<\/span> emit carbon monoxide and hydrocarbon gas<\/span>,<\/span> which <\/span>can <\/span>impact<\/span> the environment and human health.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In or<\/span>der to<\/span> provide real-time feedback and measurements<\/span> to monitor combustion process<\/span>es and related emissions,<\/span> gas sensors are used.<\/span> These<\/span> sensors work by allowing gases to <\/span>interact with sensing material<\/span>s<\/span> to generate <\/span>a<\/span> measurable signal. <\/span>If <\/span>a measured<\/span> signal <\/span>is above a set level, it will trigger an alarm.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, monitoring can be challenging<\/span> due to the<\/span> high temperatures<\/span> inherent in these <\/span>settings<\/span>. Current<\/span>ly,<\/span> high-temperature gas sensors <\/span>have some issues. They exhibit poor <\/span>thermal <\/span>stability<\/span>, have low sensitivity at high temperature, <\/span>and readings can be impacted by<\/span> interference from other gases <\/span>that<\/span> manufacturers are not interested in measuring.\u00a0<\/span> There are few sensors <\/span>on the market that can meet <\/span>performance<\/span> requirements within these harsh operating conditions<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Centennial Professor in UConn’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering<\/a>, Yu Lei, has patented<\/span>\u00a0an<\/span> improved gas sens<\/span>ing technology<\/span> for<\/span> use in industrial applications<\/span>. <\/span>His technology uses <\/span>a highly porous nanomaterial that is stable at high temperatures<\/span> (e.g. <\/span>800 degrees Celsius<\/span>)<\/span>, and is highly sensitive to <\/span>gases such as <\/span>carbon monoxide<\/span> and hydrocarbons, making it suitable for monitoring combustion<\/span> efficiency<\/span> and emissions <\/span>for a<\/span> wide range of applications.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lei\u2019s device <\/span>also <\/span>uses a new <\/span>impedancemetric<\/span> technique that <\/span>operates<\/span> at a <\/span>fixed <\/span>high frequency <\/span>which minimizes the interference from<\/span> other gases<\/span> in a combustion mixture<\/span>. This allows for highly selective readings.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, <\/span>Lei\u2019s process to produce this <\/span>nano<\/span>material is much easier and more affordable than the existing <\/span>methods,<\/span> with many<\/span> potential <\/span>uses<\/span> once<\/span> commercializ<\/span>ed<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis sensor is operated in a simple configuration and will bring a potential leap in various combustion monitoring and control device development<\/span>,<\/span>\u201d Lei says. \u201cIt will also impact other <\/span>sectors<\/span> areas<\/span>,<\/span> such as energy harvesting and storage, petroleum and coal refineries, and pollution control.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lei received his Ph.D. from the University of California Riverside in 2004<\/span> before joining the UConn Chemical and Bio<\/span>molecular Engineering faculty the same year<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span> He is now one of five named <\/span>Castleman<\/span> Distinguished<\/span> Professors.\u00a0 <\/span>His research focuses on the development of a diverse array of sensor technologies that are novel, simple, ultrasensitive and universal.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

US Patent Number: US 10,228,345\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow UConn Research on <\/span><\/i>Twitter<\/span><\/i><\/a> & <\/span><\/i>LinkedIn<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn professor, Yu Lei, has patented\u00a0an improved gas sensing technology for use in industrial applications.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":150547,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866,2076],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2140],"class_list":["post-150241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-research"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 03:58:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150548,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150241\/revisions\/150548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/150547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150241"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=150241"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=150241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}