RESONANCE BASED MICROMECHANICAL CANTILEVER FOR GAS SENSING

Abstract

Our world is facing some drastic changes in the climatic conditions due to the heating effect caused by various greenhouse gases. The most harmful gas among them is Carbon dioxide and is increasing at an uncontrolled rate. This paper aims in finding out the quantity of the major polluting gas carbon dioxide. The gravimetric sensor works by adsorbing the CO2 molecules on ZnO sensing layer, which alters the overall mass of the sensor. The mechanical structure is a cantilever, having its own resonant frequency. To selectively adsorb CO2 molecules from the mixture of gaseous molecules, ZnO at a specific temperature is used. As the gas molecules are adsorbed the mass increases and hence there is a change in resonant frequency. This change in frequency gives the measure of the quantity of CO2 molecules present in that environment. The major expected advantage of this technique would be the repeatability of the sensor that is used. This Quantitative analysis of CO2 would be helpful for mankind by alerting them about the environment in which they work, by proper conditioning and networking