Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SELFSENS (Printed SELF-power platform for gas SENSing monitoring)
Período documentado: 2018-10-01 hasta 2020-09-30
The importance of the sensor field and, in particular, gas sensors is undeniable: they play a fundamental role in industrial emissions, environmental pollution, medical diagnosis, food processing, to name but a few. For example, the monitoring of NOx is necessary, among other reasons, to control the environmental pollution coming from combustion or automotive emissions.
The number of electronic devices employed in our daily life is exponentially increasing, especially the number of sensors required to monitor our environment and well-being. This situation is leading to drastically increased in the amount of electronic wastes and energy consumption to power up the systems by using the conventional fabrication techniques and devices. SELFSENS has explored a different approach to produce sensors with environmental friendly processes and materials as well as energy harvesters to produce the desired electronic systems in a sustainable way.
The ultimate goal of this project is to achieve an autonomous printed system for environmental monitoring.
The objectives pursued in this project are described below:
1. To develop selective and low-power gas sensors. One of the main challenges is to find a selective solution, that is to say, a sensor system capable of discriminating among different vapour species. Looking at the attractive characteristics of reduced graphene oxide (rGO), SELFSENS has looked for their functionalization in order to increase their selectivity to a concrete gas while decreasing it to others. Furthermore, the design of sensor arrays together with pattern recognition algorithms have been investigated in order to develop a truly selective sensory device. Moreover, the sensor response is desired to be recovered over time. An easy way to achieve this is to heat the active layer to force the trapped molecules to be desorbed. This strategy and others (e.g. current flow) have been studied, selecting the most appropriate one in terms of power demand. The manufacturing of these sensors have been done by laser scribing and printing techniques because of the large number of features that these technologies offer to electronics circuits.
2. To design printed and efficient energy harvesters. The inclusion of an energy harvesting solution has been investigated in order to reduce the total consumption of the sensor module or even to achieve a full autonomous sensory system. In particular, solar energy and radiofrequency have been explored as harvester solutions. Moreover, a storage element based on rGO technology is desired to enhance energy management. For this purpose, a laser-scribed supercapacitor have been designed so that its integration in the fabrication process of the system is immediate.
3. To implement self-powered sensor nodes. These two elements (sensors and harvesters) have been included in a larger system, adding other already developed printed sensors –such as temperature sensors- with the aim of performing environmental monitoring in different scenarios, such as industry or comfort in buildings. To do that, some basic circuitry have been designed, including resistors, and capacitors.
4. To find a compatible and stackable manufacturing process. A key point of this strategy is to use the same fabrication processes for the circuitry as well as the harvester part as employed for the manufacturing of the gas sensors, looking at the compatibility of materials and processes, as well as, the possibilities of stackable procedures.
The number of electronic devices employed in our daily life is exponentially increasing, especially the number of sensors required to monitor our environment and well-being. This situation is leading to drastically increased in the amount of electronic wastes and energy consumption to power up the systems by using the conventional fabrication techniques and devices. SELFSENS has explored a different approach to produce sensors with environmental friendly processes and materials as well as energy harvesters to produce the desired electronic systems in a sustainable way.
The ultimate goal of this project is to achieve an autonomous printed system for environmental monitoring.
The objectives pursued in this project are described below:
1. To develop selective and low-power gas sensors. One of the main challenges is to find a selective solution, that is to say, a sensor system capable of discriminating among different vapour species. Looking at the attractive characteristics of reduced graphene oxide (rGO), SELFSENS has looked for their functionalization in order to increase their selectivity to a concrete gas while decreasing it to others. Furthermore, the design of sensor arrays together with pattern recognition algorithms have been investigated in order to develop a truly selective sensory device. Moreover, the sensor response is desired to be recovered over time. An easy way to achieve this is to heat the active layer to force the trapped molecules to be desorbed. This strategy and others (e.g. current flow) have been studied, selecting the most appropriate one in terms of power demand. The manufacturing of these sensors have been done by laser scribing and printing techniques because of the large number of features that these technologies offer to electronics circuits.
2. To design printed and efficient energy harvesters. The inclusion of an energy harvesting solution has been investigated in order to reduce the total consumption of the sensor module or even to achieve a full autonomous sensory system. In particular, solar energy and radiofrequency have been explored as harvester solutions. Moreover, a storage element based on rGO technology is desired to enhance energy management. For this purpose, a laser-scribed supercapacitor have been designed so that its integration in the fabrication process of the system is immediate.
3. To implement self-powered sensor nodes. These two elements (sensors and harvesters) have been included in a larger system, adding other already developed printed sensors –such as temperature sensors- with the aim of performing environmental monitoring in different scenarios, such as industry or comfort in buildings. To do that, some basic circuitry have been designed, including resistors, and capacitors.
4. To find a compatible and stackable manufacturing process. A key point of this strategy is to use the same fabrication processes for the circuitry as well as the harvester part as employed for the manufacturing of the gas sensors, looking at the compatibility of materials and processes, as well as, the possibilities of stackable procedures.
SELFSENS has explored the use of laser reduced graphene oxide (LrGO) and laser induced graphene (LIG) for flexible sensor systems. These techniques have been combined with other printing ones (such as inkjet printing, screen printing or spray deposition) and with other materials (such as conductive polymers, carbon nanotubes). SELFSENS has also considered the use of other novel materials to produce devices like metal organic frameworks. At the end of this project, it has been proved the feasibility of producing and combining gas sensors, temperature sensors, solar cells, antennas and passive components with the selected materials and techniques. Furthermore, it has been shown the integration of some of the manufactured devices in complete final systems for environmental monitoring.
SELFSENS has already produced a total of 22 peer-reviewed journal papers:
- Optimization of a Handwriting Method by an Automated Ink Pen for Cost-Effective and Sustainable Sensors
- Facile manufacturing of sub-mm thick CNT-based RC filters. Materials Letters
- Cellulose nanofibers as substrate for flexible and biodegradable moisture sensors
- Fabrication of low cost and low impact RH and temperature sensors for the internet of environmental-friendly things
- Carbon Dots as Sensing Layer for Printed Humidity and Temperature Sensors
- Printed and Flexible Microheaters Based on Carbon Nanotubes
- Recent advances in printed capacitive sensors
- Screen Printed Security-Button for Radio Frequency Identification Tags
- Fabrication and characterization of humidity sensors based on graphene Oxide–PEDOT: PSS composites on a flexible substrate
- Optimization of Cost-Effective and Reproducible Flexible Humidity Sensors Based on Metal-Organic Frameworks
- Low-cost gas sensing: Dynamic self-compensation of humidity in cnt-based devices
- Screen-printed chipless wireless temperature sensor
- Inexpensive graphene oxide heaters lithographed by laser
- An optimized measurement algorithm for gas sensors based on carbon nanotubes: optimizing sensor performance and hardware resources
- Inexpensive and flexible nanographene-based electrodes for ubiquitous electrocardiogram monitoring
- Design, fabrication and characterization of capacitive humidity sensors based on emerging flexible technologies
- Cost-effective PEDOT: PSS temperature sensors inkjetted on a bendable substrate by a consumer printer
- Flexible and robust laser-induced graphene heaters photothermally scribed on bare polyimide substrates
- Fully transparent gas sensor based on Carbon Nanotubes
- Over-stretching tolerant conductors on rubber films by inkjet-printing silver nanoparticles for wearables
- In-depth study of laser diode ablation of kapton polyimide for flexible conductive substrate
- Design guidelines of laser reduced graphene oxide conformal thermistor for IoT applications
And a total of 6 conferences contributions and several outtreach activities, some example:
- Science Week 2019
- Women and Girls in Science 2020
- Engineering Fair 2020, 2021
- European Research Night 2019, 2021
- Press Releases
- Regional TV interview
SELFSENS has already produced a total of 22 peer-reviewed journal papers:
- Optimization of a Handwriting Method by an Automated Ink Pen for Cost-Effective and Sustainable Sensors
- Facile manufacturing of sub-mm thick CNT-based RC filters. Materials Letters
- Cellulose nanofibers as substrate for flexible and biodegradable moisture sensors
- Fabrication of low cost and low impact RH and temperature sensors for the internet of environmental-friendly things
- Carbon Dots as Sensing Layer for Printed Humidity and Temperature Sensors
- Printed and Flexible Microheaters Based on Carbon Nanotubes
- Recent advances in printed capacitive sensors
- Screen Printed Security-Button for Radio Frequency Identification Tags
- Fabrication and characterization of humidity sensors based on graphene Oxide–PEDOT: PSS composites on a flexible substrate
- Optimization of Cost-Effective and Reproducible Flexible Humidity Sensors Based on Metal-Organic Frameworks
- Low-cost gas sensing: Dynamic self-compensation of humidity in cnt-based devices
- Screen-printed chipless wireless temperature sensor
- Inexpensive graphene oxide heaters lithographed by laser
- An optimized measurement algorithm for gas sensors based on carbon nanotubes: optimizing sensor performance and hardware resources
- Inexpensive and flexible nanographene-based electrodes for ubiquitous electrocardiogram monitoring
- Design, fabrication and characterization of capacitive humidity sensors based on emerging flexible technologies
- Cost-effective PEDOT: PSS temperature sensors inkjetted on a bendable substrate by a consumer printer
- Flexible and robust laser-induced graphene heaters photothermally scribed on bare polyimide substrates
- Fully transparent gas sensor based on Carbon Nanotubes
- Over-stretching tolerant conductors on rubber films by inkjet-printing silver nanoparticles for wearables
- In-depth study of laser diode ablation of kapton polyimide for flexible conductive substrate
- Design guidelines of laser reduced graphene oxide conformal thermistor for IoT applications
And a total of 6 conferences contributions and several outtreach activities, some example:
- Science Week 2019
- Women and Girls in Science 2020
- Engineering Fair 2020, 2021
- European Research Night 2019, 2021
- Press Releases
- Regional TV interview
SELFSENS has advanced in the production of sensors and energy harvesters with environmental friendly and low-cost processes and materials to pave the way to sustainable and cost-effective electronics systems during the whole product cycle, generating less wastes and consuming less energy.