In a closed session Kayoung (Gina) Kim will be discussing her research in the Synthesis and Characterization of Polymeric Gas Sensing Materials for Detection of Agricultural Lagoon Off-Gas
Abstract:
To monitor the progress of manure fermentation and control gas pollutants from manure lagoon released into the atmosphere, a sensor that can detect components of biogas in a reliable manner is necessary. Any sensor requires a sensing material that responds to one specific gas analyte. Polyaniline (PANI), PPy and PDMS are found to have affinity for ammonia and/or methane.
They were tested with gas chromatography using formaldehyde. PANI showed better sorption. SnO2, ZnO, SDS, TiO2 and HCl were selected as dopants for PANI. PANI was synthesized with varying dopant levels for GC testing. When tested with the MEMS sensor, both PANI with SnO2 and ZnO sorbed methane at ambient temperature. PANI-5% ZnO was proven to be the most suitable sensing material for methane detection, showing the highest signal at 50 ppm methane levels.
Supervisor: Professor Alex Penlidis