Manipulating polymer composition to create low-cost, high-fidelity sensors for indoor CO(2) monitoring

Carbon dioxide (CO(2)) has been linked to many deleterious health effects, and it has also been used as a proxy for building occupancy measurements. These applications have created a need for low-cost and low-power CO(2) sensors that can be seamlessly incorporated into existing buildings. We report a resonant mass sensor coated with a solution-processable polymer blend of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) for the detection of CO(2) across multiple use conditions. Controlling the polymer blend composition and nanostructure enabled better transport of the analyte gas into the sensing layer, which allowed for significantly enhanced CO(2) sensing relative to the state of the art. Moreover, the hydrophilic nature of PEO resulted in water uptake, which provided for higher sensing sensitivity at elevated humidity conditions. Therefore, this key integration of materials and resonant sensor platform could be a potential solution in the future for CO(2) monitoring in smart infrastructure.