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Towards Highly Efficient Nitrogen Dioxide Gas Sensors in Humid and Wet Environments Using Triggerable-Polymer Metasurfaces

We report simulations on a highly-sensitive class of metasurface-based nitrogen dioxide (NO [Formula: see text]) gas sensors, operating in the telecom C band around the 1550 nm line and exhibiting strong variations in terms of the reflection coefficient after assimilation of NO [Formula: see text] m...

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Autores principales: Danila, Octavian, Gross, Barry M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9921561/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36771846
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15030545
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author Danila, Octavian
Gross, Barry M.
author_facet Danila, Octavian
Gross, Barry M.
author_sort Danila, Octavian
collection PubMed
description We report simulations on a highly-sensitive class of metasurface-based nitrogen dioxide (NO [Formula: see text]) gas sensors, operating in the telecom C band around the 1550 nm line and exhibiting strong variations in terms of the reflection coefficient after assimilation of NO [Formula: see text] molecules. The unit architecture employs a polymer-based (polyvinylidene fluoride—PVDF or polyimide—PI) motif of either half-rings, rods, or disks having selected sizes and orientations, deposited on a gold substrate. On top of this, we add a layer of hydrophyllic polymer (POEGMA) functionalized with a NO [Formula: see text]-responsive monomer (PAPUEMA), which is able to adsorb water molecules only in the presence of NO [Formula: see text] molecules. In this process, the POEGMA raises its hidrophyllicity, while not triggering a phase change in the bulk material, which, in turn, modifies its electrical properties. Contrary to absorption-based gas detection and electrical signal-based sensors, which experience considerable limitations in humid or wet environments, our method stands out by simple exploitation of the basic material properties of the functionalized polymer. The results show that NO [Formula: see text]-triggered water molecule adsorption from humid and wet environments can be used in conjunction with our metasurface architecture in order to provide a highly-sensitive response in the desired spectral window. Additionally, instead of measuring the absorption spectrum of the NO [Formula: see text] gas, in which humidity counts as a parasitic effect due to spectral overlap, this method allows tuning to a desired wavelength at which the water molecules are transparent, by scaling the geometry and thicknesses of the layers to respond to a desired wavelength. All these advantages make our proposed sensor architecture an extremely-viable candidate for both biological and atmospheric NO [Formula: see text] gas-sensing applications.
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spelling pubmed-99215612023-02-12 Towards Highly Efficient Nitrogen Dioxide Gas Sensors in Humid and Wet Environments Using Triggerable-Polymer Metasurfaces Danila, Octavian Gross, Barry M. Polymers (Basel) Article We report simulations on a highly-sensitive class of metasurface-based nitrogen dioxide (NO [Formula: see text]) gas sensors, operating in the telecom C band around the 1550 nm line and exhibiting strong variations in terms of the reflection coefficient after assimilation of NO [Formula: see text] molecules. The unit architecture employs a polymer-based (polyvinylidene fluoride—PVDF or polyimide—PI) motif of either half-rings, rods, or disks having selected sizes and orientations, deposited on a gold substrate. On top of this, we add a layer of hydrophyllic polymer (POEGMA) functionalized with a NO [Formula: see text]-responsive monomer (PAPUEMA), which is able to adsorb water molecules only in the presence of NO [Formula: see text] molecules. In this process, the POEGMA raises its hidrophyllicity, while not triggering a phase change in the bulk material, which, in turn, modifies its electrical properties. Contrary to absorption-based gas detection and electrical signal-based sensors, which experience considerable limitations in humid or wet environments, our method stands out by simple exploitation of the basic material properties of the functionalized polymer. The results show that NO [Formula: see text]-triggered water molecule adsorption from humid and wet environments can be used in conjunction with our metasurface architecture in order to provide a highly-sensitive response in the desired spectral window. Additionally, instead of measuring the absorption spectrum of the NO [Formula: see text] gas, in which humidity counts as a parasitic effect due to spectral overlap, this method allows tuning to a desired wavelength at which the water molecules are transparent, by scaling the geometry and thicknesses of the layers to respond to a desired wavelength. All these advantages make our proposed sensor architecture an extremely-viable candidate for both biological and atmospheric NO [Formula: see text] gas-sensing applications. MDPI 2023-01-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9921561/ /pubmed/36771846 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15030545 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Danila, Octavian
Gross, Barry M.
Towards Highly Efficient Nitrogen Dioxide Gas Sensors in Humid and Wet Environments Using Triggerable-Polymer Metasurfaces
title Towards Highly Efficient Nitrogen Dioxide Gas Sensors in Humid and Wet Environments Using Triggerable-Polymer Metasurfaces
title_full Towards Highly Efficient Nitrogen Dioxide Gas Sensors in Humid and Wet Environments Using Triggerable-Polymer Metasurfaces
title_fullStr Towards Highly Efficient Nitrogen Dioxide Gas Sensors in Humid and Wet Environments Using Triggerable-Polymer Metasurfaces
title_full_unstemmed Towards Highly Efficient Nitrogen Dioxide Gas Sensors in Humid and Wet Environments Using Triggerable-Polymer Metasurfaces
title_short Towards Highly Efficient Nitrogen Dioxide Gas Sensors in Humid and Wet Environments Using Triggerable-Polymer Metasurfaces
title_sort towards highly efficient nitrogen dioxide gas sensors in humid and wet environments using triggerable-polymer metasurfaces
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9921561/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36771846
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/polym15030545
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