From April 30th to May 3rd, 2024, RADICAL participated in the 4th Annual Air Sensors International Conference (ASIC) held in California. The ASIC Conference is dedicated to enhancing the application of sensors by communities to bolster air quality initiatives.
Recognised as one of the premier events for air quality monitoring and sensor development, it brings together a diverse group of stakeholders, including representatives from academia, government, community organizations, and commercial enterprises. The conference aims to promote and advance the use of air pollution sensors, improve the quality of data generated by these sensors, expand the range of pollutants measured, and foster greater community involvement in air quality monitoring.
RADICAL atmospheric chemist Prof. John Wenger (University College Cork) presented an overview of the project and its latest developments in the ‘Next Generation Sensing‘ session, which was quite well attended. Other talks were on new methods for measuring PM. He was joined by Dr. Stig Hellebust, who is also an atmospheric chemist at University College Cork.
“The meeting was very good,” said John Wenger. “It is clear that we are doing something unique!” According to John, there was significant discourse on the development and integration of sensor networks and methods to enhance the accuracy of existing sensors. However, discussions on new sensing technologies were notably sparse.
We look forward to future ASIC events where we can present the full, prototype RADICAL sensor.
Talk title:
RADICAL: Developing an electronic sensor for detecting short-lived atmospheric radicals and other gases
Abstract:
Atmospheric radicals, particularly hydroxyl and nitrate, are the drivers of chemical processes that determine atmospheric composition and influence air quality and climate. However, the detection of these short-lived atmospheric radicals is far from routine, and only a few labs worldwide can accurately measure their concentrations in air. Current techniques for measuring radicals are based on spectroscopic and mass spectrometric methods, which although sensitive and robust, are technically complex, cumbersome and expensive.
This presentation provides an overview, and a discussion of the latest results, from the EU-funded project ‘RADICAL’ which is developing a small, affordable sensor to electrically detect short-lived atmospheric radicals in real-time. This will be the first gas sensor built from an array of junctionless nanowire transistors, which have proven popular for liquid-based sensors. These silicon devices are functionalised with organic “probe” molecules (e.g. alkenes) for high selectivity and sensitivity towards the target analytes. Preliminary results for these sensors show ppb-level detection capability towards different atmospheric species including NO2, O3 and HOx.
Although challenging, RADICAL sensors not only have the potential to be deployed on a large scale but can also be adapted to detect other important atmospheric gases, particularly on short-timescales. The project team welcomes ideas for future collaborations on how these sensors might be best applied in real-life environmental monitoring situations.
Presentation slides:
Download a copy of the presentation slides through the RADICAL project repository on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/11474791
Get in touch:
Did you meet us at ASIC? Interested in our work?
We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at info@radical-air.eu or connect with us on X and LinkedIn.
