Researchers from Kyoto University discovered a new inexpensive device using polymer material that can detect carbon dioxide.
The team of researchers created a device capable of fast and accurate detection of specific gases under various circumstances. Moreover, the device is reusable and gives off variable degrees of visible light in correspondence with different gas concentrations, providing for the development of easy to use monitoring devices.
According to the researchers this discovery will yield to the development of a wide array of specific, cheap and reusable gas detectors for mitigating climate change.
Different technologies are used to detect specific gases in the air. However, high energy cost, large size, low detection speed and sensitivity to humidity are some of the drawbacks of these devices.
The new device is made from flexible crystalline material known as porous coordination polymer. The material transforms according to changes in the environment. When the material is combined with a fluorescent reporter molecule, distyrylbenzene, the device becomes sensitive to carbon dioxide and glows based on the concentrations of the gas.
Distyrylbenzene is a long, flat molecule that emits blue light. However, it coils and loses its glow when adsorbed by the polymer. However, the presence of carbon dioxide causes the distyrylbenzene to return to its natural state making it glow.
"The real test for us was to see whether the composite could differentiate between carbon dioxide and acetylene, which have similar physiochemical properties," explains Kyoto University Graduate School of Engineering associate professor and co-author Takashi Uemura.
"Our findings clearly show that this PCP-DSB combination reacts very differently to the two gases, making accurate CO2 detection possible in a wide variety of applications," he also added.
The research was led by Dr. Nobuhiro Yanai and the findings were recently published in the journal Nature Materials. (Kristin Dian Mariano)
source: APEC-VC Korea
