title: Development of low-cost ammonia gas sensors and data analysis algorithms to implement a monitoring grid of urban environmental pollutants.
abstract: The present study is focused on the implementation of a novel, low cost, urban grid of nanostructured chemresistor gas sensors for ammonia concentration ([NH(3)]) monitoring, with NH(3) being one of the main precursors of secondary fine particulate. Low-cost chemresistor gas sensors based on carbon nanotubes have been developed, their response to [NH(3)] in the 0.17-5.0 ppm range has been tested, and the devices have been properly calibrated under different relative humidity conditions in the 33-63% range. In order to improve the chemresistor selectivity towards [NH(3)], an Expert System, based on fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms, has been developed to extract the atmospheric [NH(3)] (with a sensitivity of a few ppb) from the output signal of a model chemresistor gas sensor exposed to an NO(2), NO(X) and O(3) gas mixture. The concentration of these pollutants that are known to be the most significant interfering compounds during ammonia detection with carbon nanotube gas sensors has been tracked by the ARPA monitoring network in the city of Milan and the historical dataset collected over one year has been used to train the Expert System.
authors.affiliation: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, CRASL, Via dei Musei 41, 25121 Brescia, Italy. maria.chiesa@unicatt.it
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chiesa
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rigoni
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Paderno
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Borghetti
authors.forename: Giovanna
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gagliotti
authors.forename: Maurizio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bertoni
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ballarin Denti
authors.forename: Lorenzo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schiavina
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Goldoni
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sangaletti
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000465:Algorithms; D000641:Ammonia / Q000032:analysis*; D002947:Cities; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D017143:Fuzzy Logic; D007558:Italy; D009585:Nitrogen Dioxide / Q000032:analysis; D009589:Nitrogen Oxides / Q000032:analysis; D010126:Ozone / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D009589:Nitrogen Oxides; D010126:Ozone; D000641:Ammonia; D009585:Nitrogen Dioxide