Potential applications sensors

One of the major potential applications of conducting polymers is as mediators or catalysts for electrochemical sensors and electrosynthesis. 

Titanium dioxide supported gold catalysts exhibit excellent activity for CO oxidation even at temperatures as low as 90 K [1]. The key is the high dispersion of the nanostructured gold particles over the semiconducting Ti02 support. The potential applications of ambient temperature CO oxidation catalysts include air purifier, gas sensor and fuel cell [2]. This work investigates the effects of ozone pretreatment on the performance of Au/Ti02 for CO oxidation. 

Electrogenerated chemiluminescence (ECL) has proved to be useful for analytical applications including organic analysis, ECL-based immunosensors, DNA probe assays, and enzymatic biosensors. In the last few years, the electrochemistry and ECL of compound semiconductor nanocrystallites have attracted much attention due to their potential applications in analytical chemistry (ECL sensors). 

The next three chapters (Chapters 9-11) focus on the deposition of nano-structured or microstructured films and entities. Porous oxide thin films are, for example, of great interest due to potential application of these films as low-K dielectrics and in sensors, selective membranes, and photovoltaic applications. One of the key challenges in this area is the problem of controlling, ordering, and combining pore structure over different length scales. Chapter 9 provides an introduction and discussion of evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA), a method that combines sol-gel synthesis with self-assembly and phase separation to produce films with a tailored pore structure. Chapter 10 describes how nanomaterials can be used as soluble precursors for the preparation of extended... 

The major potential application of active carbon fibers is as an adsorbent in environmental control, as outlined in the previous section. However, there is a number of smaller scale, niche applications that seem to be particularly suited to ACF. These emerging applications include the use of ACF in medicine [111 (see also 59,60),112], as capacitors [113-119] and vapor sensors [120], and in refrigeration [121]. The first two of these applications are summarized below. However, there are not many detailed, publicly-available sources describing any of these applications, partly for commercial reasons and partly because the technology is emerging, so any summary is necessarily limited in scope. 

A popular UV sensor designed for flame monitoring is the SFH 530 sensor by Infinion. It is a UV-enhanced Si photodiode with optical filter, concentrator lens and operational amplifier in a TO-39 package. Flame-sensing in gas ovens is another potential application of the described technique. 

The potential applications of NIR OFCD determination of metal ions are numerous. The detection of metal contaminants can be accomplished in real-time by using a portable fiber optical metal sensor (OFMD). Metal probe applications developed in the laboratory can be directly transferred to portable environmental applications with minimal effort. The response time of the NIR probe is comparable to its visible counterparts and is much faster than the traditional methods of metal analysis such as atomic absorption spectroscopy, polarography, and ion chromatography. With the use of OFMD results can be monitored on-site resulting in a significant reduction in labor cost and analysis time. 

The microsystems may also serve potential applications in material science and in the growing field of nanotechnology. Microhotplates can be used for material processing, and, at the same time, for the monitoring of material properties such as the electrical resistance [10]. Moreover, the microsystems can be applied to determine thermal properties of new materials such as the melting point, especially when only small quantities of material are available [145], so that monolithic microhotplate-based devices are not only powerful sensor systems for a broad range of applications, but also new research tools for sensor science and nanotechnology. 

Figure 24.1 Schematic diagram for a potential application of multiplexed diode-laser sensors for measurements of gas temperature, species concentrations, velocity, mass flux, and thrust at several locations in military- and industrial-scale gas turbines (e.g., aeropropulsion, incineration, power generation appheations)...

The covalent chemistry of fullerenes has developed very rapidly in the past decade in an effort to modify fuUerene properties for a number of applications such as photovoltaic cells, infrared detectors, optical limiting devices, chemical gas sensors, three-dimensional electroactive polymers, and molecular wires [8, 25, 26, 80-82]. Systematic studies of the redox properties of Cgo derivatives have played a crucial role in the characterization of their unique electronic properties, which lie at the center of these potential applications. Furthermore, electrochemical techniques have been used to synthesize and separate new fullerene derivatives and their isomers as well as to prepare fullerene containing thin films and polymers. In this section, to facilitate discussion of their redox properties, Cgo derivatives have been classified in three groups on the basis of the type of attachment of the addend to the fullerene. In group one, the addends are attached via single bonds to the Cgo surface as shown in Fig. 6(a) and are referred to as singly bonded functionalized derivatives. The group includes... 

Optical Fibers. Pure and doped fused silica fibers have replaced copper lines in the telecommunication area. Fused silica fibers are used in laser surgery, optical sensor application, and laser welding (see Sensors). Optical-fiber-tethered weapons such as fiber-optics-guided (FOG) missiles are another potential application for fused silica (249,250) (see Fiber optics). 

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