Sensor Developments
The importance of clean air is being acknowledged more and more. One of The great polluters in The Netherlands is traffic. On a yearly basis, thousands of people decease prematurely as a result of traffic-emissions. Soot and NOx, being produced by traffic, are the most harmfull substances. Furthermore, the quality of air in buildings is being threatened, while buildings are better isolated and smoke, kitchenfumes and NOx of water heaters are not being ventilated out of the buildings/houses. Gas detection equipment is, in general, expensive and hard to operate. The department Materials Testing develops sensors to meausure, for several applications, the air quality, specifically NOx and small dust. These sensors have to be small and payable so they can be used in a wide variaty of situations. The developments in the optica and nanotechnology are, therefore, very interesting. An example is the NOx/NO2 sensor, which uses a new technique to detect NO2 and which we like to apply. The detector will be several centimeters in size with a sensitivity up to 50 ppb. We want to expand the technique to also be able to measure NOx. The costs will stay low, because low cost components are being used.
