Inflammable Gas Mixture Detection with a Single Catalytic Sensor Based on the Electric Field Effect

Sensors

Ziyuan Tong¹  Min-Ming Tong¹  Wen Meng¹ 

[1] Engineering Institute of Information and Electricity, China University of Mining Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China; E-Mails:

关键词: gas analysis;    catalytic sensor;    safety monitoring in mines;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s140406409

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

This paper introduces a new way to analyze mixtures of inflammable gases with a single catalytic sensor. The analysis technology was based on a new finding that an electric field on the catalytic sensor can change the output sensitivity of the sensor. The analysis of mixed inflammable gases results from processing the output signals obtained by adjusting the electric field parameter of the catalytic sensor. For the signal process, we designed a group of equations based on the heat balance of catalytic sensor expressing the relationship between the output signals and the concentration of gases. With these equations and the outputs of different electric fields, the gas concentration in a mixture could be calculated. In experiments, a mixture of methane, butane and ethane was analyzed by this new method, and the results showed that the concentration of each gas in the mixture could be detected with a single catalytic sensor, and the maximum relative error was less than 5%.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.