MEMS/Nano-technologies for Smart Air Environmental Monitoring Sensors

Abstract

The importance of air quality monitoring is rapidly increasing. Even though state-of-the-art air quality monitoring technologies such as mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, and optical measurement enable high-fidelity measurement of air pollutants, they cannot be widely used for portable or personalized platforms because of their high cost and complexity. Recently, personalized and localized environmental monitoring, rather than global and averaged environmental monitoring, has drawn greater attention with the advancement of mobile telecommunication technologies. Here, micro- and nano-technologies enable highly integrated and ultra-compact sensors to meet the needs of personalized environmental monitoring. In this paper, several examples of MEMS-based gas sensors for compact and personalized air quality monitoring are explained. Additionally, the principles and usage of functional nanomaterials are discussed for highly sensitive and selective gas sensors.