Using a cheap material that effectively detects levels of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide, your phone could potentially alert you if you stroll into a polluted area
A team of Australian and Chinese scientists have developed a all-new sensor capable of detecting potentially harmful levels of nitrogen dioxide, while being extremely cheap to manufacture.
The primary source of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide is attributed to the burning of fossil fuels as in vehicular exhausts, industrial pollution, petroleum refineries and coal-fired thermal power stations.
In a communication with Mashable Australia, Australian scientist Kourosh Kalantar-zadeh, a professor at RMIT’s Centre for Advanced Electronics and Sensors, stated he helped discover how the material tin disulphide can be effectively used to accurately detect the level of nitrogen dioxide in the air. Stemming from a personal experience, Kalantar-zadeh became involved in the quest for effect methods at detecting this noxious gas when his then pregnant wife was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a debilitating condition for both mother and child that some scientists associate with nitrogen dioxide related poisoning.
Traditionally a key component of varnishes, he discovered that tin disulphide exhibits the unique property of selectively attracting nitrogen dioxide gas molecules toward its surface. The sensor that he and his colleague from the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed uses a layer that is but a few atoms thick as a surface coating (shown above, magnified 500,000 times.) The manufacturing process associated with this material is also very low cost: under one Australian dollar, claims Kalantar-zadeh.
They team has made their research public in the hope that it will spark development and greater momentum toward fabricating these cheap yet effective sensors on a large scale. The applications extend from individuals potentially using this sensor in their smartphone to alert when entering a potentially harmful area, or even on a far wider scale where data from hundreds of thousands of smartphone sensors could enable civic officials to obtain real-time sensor data on air quality over wide geographical region.
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