The ER has only completed slightly above one full year of the MSCA because he obtained an Associate Professor position (Universitetslektor) at Linköping University (LiU) and discontinued the current project. During the 14 months of MSCA, the ER has completed most of the goals intended for this period, with some exceptions and some additions, and what is remarkable: has quickly set the foundations for the first long-term goal: to establish an independent research team at an EU institution, by acquiring a permanent position at LiU. Within the VolcanAI project, the ER has developed advanced gas sensor systems, and these were tested against gases present in volcanic environments.
The ER has found and established reproducible methodologies and parameters to grow the intended and other nanomaterials never fabricated in the facilities of University of Barcelona before, integrated them into micropatterned chips, and used them to fabricate gas sensors. The ER characterized morphologically, structurally, chemically, optically, and electrically the synthesized nanomaterials. The ER designed, tested, and mounted a printed circuit board integrated in the sensor platform to safely power light emitting diodes and, thus allow the photoactivation of the fabricated sensing materials. He also renovated the gas mixing system with new customized gas measuring chambers and calibrated and integrated a safety system to ensure that no leakage of the toxic gases occurred during the gas sensing experiments related to volcanic gases (SO2 and H2S). Finally, he studied the gas response of the fabricated sensing materials towards gases of interest for volcanic environments (CO, CH4, CO2, SO2, H2S, and H2O). Surprisingly, one of the results obtained is that the sensors that can detect certain gases at room temperature, which is not common with this type of materials and could be of great benefit for the future of gas sensing.
