SBIR Phase II: Screen-Printed Gas Sensor using Nanoparticulate Catalyst

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project seeks to combine the technology for a high performance amperometric gas sensor, AGS, with the fabrication methods of printed electronics, first for sensing carbon monoxide (CO). In Phase I KWJ demonstrated a unique combination of technologies and fabricated a CO sensor that, in performance testing, was compared to commercial sensors 10-100 times larger and 10-100 times more expensive. The new unique geometry sensor response characteristics we as good or better than commercial sensors. The printed-AGS sensor provides a general platform for sensors that is both low cost and high performance. In Phase II, this novel Printed-CO-sensor and the process for fabrication will be optimized and innovative beta-prototypes designed and fabricated. The prototype sensors will be subjected to comprehensive testing and integrated with state-of-the-art electronics including tiny micro-powered RFID technology to demonstrate a fully compensated, high performance, yet low-cost, CO sensor and sensor system. This would represent the first major advancement of AGS technology in the USA in several decades, and the resulting product is potentially disruptive to the marketplace. The broader impact/commercial potential of this project lies in the ability of this novel, inexpensive printed gas sensor to combine the high performance found in the AGS technology and the modern fabrication technology from the microelectronics industry. The innovative products from this NSF SBIR can open a new landscape for sensor use. Legislative trends are pointing to a need for a low cost, high performance CO sensor. The result of this work will be the next leap forward in the existing widely used AGSs for monitoring. Initial impacts will include: 1] improvements in CO sensors allowing high performance home CO alarms to better protect human health as well as property, 2] widespread monitoring capability in transportation and infrastructure applications, important to both safety and homeland security; and 3] the ability to integrate gas monitoring into consumer products and create instant worldwide networks to monitor and assess for improved health and safety as well as environmental protection. The printed AGS may not only replace millions of larger sensors now sold, reducing cost and material use by 10-100X, providing a greener footprint for sensors, but also enable evolution of high performance sensing capability into new and larger markets.