A KELVIN-PROBE CHEMICAL SENSOR FOR HYDROGEN SULFIDE ANALYSIS

THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH PROJECT IS TO DEVELOPNEW GAS SENSING TECHNOLOGY BASED ON THE KELVIN METHOD OF ELECTRONIC WORK FUNCTION MEASUREMENT. THE HIGH SENSITIVITY OF THIS TECHNIQUE TO ADSORBED GASES WILL BE AUGMENTED BY THEUSE OF A GOLD-FILM ACTIVE SURFACE AND ELEVATED TEMPERATURE OPERATION TO ESTABLISH SELECTIVITY AND EXTEND THE CONCENTRATION LIMITS OF OPERATION. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH BUILDS UPON A STRONG GOLD-FILM-SENSOR TECHNOLOGY BASE WITHIN THE ARIZONA INSTRUMENT CORPORATION. INITIALLY, A PROTOTYPE SENSOR WILL BE DESIGNED, BUILT AND EVALUATED TO DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE APPROACH. HYDROGEN SULFIDEWILL BE USED IN THE EVALUATION BECAUSE OF ITS IMPORTANCE AS AN INDUSTRIAL TOXIN, ITS STRONG INTERACTION WITH GOLD ANDTHE CRITICAL NEED FOR H2S SENSORS THAT CONTINUOUSLY MONITOR WIDE RANGES OF CONCENTRATION. SUCCESS IN THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL ENABLE THE COMMERCIALIZATION OF A NEW CLASS OFCOMPACT, COST-EFFECTIVE GAS SENSORS PERMITTING A DEGREE OF CONTROL OF SENSITIVITY AND SELECTIVITY HERETOFORE NOT POSSIBLE. THE GREAT FLEXIBILITY OF THIS TECHNOLOGY WILL ENSURE ITS UTILITY IN CONTINUOUS MONITORING OF A BROAD RANGEOF TOXIC INDUSTRIAL GASES. THE WORLDWIDE APPLICATIONS POSSIBLE WILL PERMIT SIGNIFICANT MARKET PENETRATION BY AZI IN A TECHNICAL AREA DOMINATED BY FOREIGN INTERESTS.