Monitoring is one of the tools used to improve people understanding of air pollution patterns and trends and the long-term impacts on the several ecosystems and communities. In addition to the use of specialized equipment and analytical methods, in order to obtain more realistic and continuous results on the situation of pollutants distribution, EU projects guidelines report the need to involve also citizens in environmental monitoring, thus low-cost and easy-to-use technologies are required. To achieve this aim, novel sensors for environmental monitoring have been designed and developed to date to obtain consistent values comparable, to those provided by standard methods and technologies. At present, among nanotechnologies, electrospinning is considered as one of the most versatile and inexpensive manufacturing technologies to design and develop nanostructured sensors to detect gases and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air (Macagnano et al. 2015, a). Some advantages in designing electrospun sensors are due to the unlimited choice of the raw molecules (polymers) and the ease of modifying (by blending, nanodoping, post processing, etc.). Sensors based on polymeric as well as metal-oxide fibers look extremely attractive for the low cost and great versatility of the raw materials that can be easily modulated, according to the transducer used and the application of interest, taking part to the resulting sensing features. The inclusion of variously working nanoparticles with different strategies of functionalization has allowed the sensors achieving excellent performances under various points of view, ranging from selectivity and sensitivity, response time, small size, low power, life-time, etc., let us suppose their actual application in air pollution monitoring. The properties of nanocomposite materials depend not only on the properties of their constituents but also on their combined morphology and interfacial characteristics. Some successfully experiences will be here described.
Sviluppo di sensori low-cost ed eco-sostenibili per il monitoraggio della qualità dell'aria
Macagnano A;Avossa J;Zampetti E;De Cesare F
2018
Abstract
Monitoring is one of the tools used to improve people understanding of air pollution patterns and trends and the long-term impacts on the several ecosystems and communities. In addition to the use of specialized equipment and analytical methods, in order to obtain more realistic and continuous results on the situation of pollutants distribution, EU projects guidelines report the need to involve also citizens in environmental monitoring, thus low-cost and easy-to-use technologies are required. To achieve this aim, novel sensors for environmental monitoring have been designed and developed to date to obtain consistent values comparable, to those provided by standard methods and technologies. At present, among nanotechnologies, electrospinning is considered as one of the most versatile and inexpensive manufacturing technologies to design and develop nanostructured sensors to detect gases and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the air (Macagnano et al. 2015, a). Some advantages in designing electrospun sensors are due to the unlimited choice of the raw molecules (polymers) and the ease of modifying (by blending, nanodoping, post processing, etc.). Sensors based on polymeric as well as metal-oxide fibers look extremely attractive for the low cost and great versatility of the raw materials that can be easily modulated, according to the transducer used and the application of interest, taking part to the resulting sensing features. The inclusion of variously working nanoparticles with different strategies of functionalization has allowed the sensors achieving excellent performances under various points of view, ranging from selectivity and sensitivity, response time, small size, low power, life-time, etc., let us suppose their actual application in air pollution monitoring. The properties of nanocomposite materials depend not only on the properties of their constituents but also on their combined morphology and interfacial characteristics. Some successfully experiences will be here described.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
