Playing with low-cost gas sensors
As a scientist, I work with the characterisation of gases. For this purpose, I use professional analysers of various types: fourier transform infrared spectrometers, mass spectrometers, gas chromatographs with a plethora of detectors and tunable diode lasers. These instruments are expensive, typically in the range between 15-150 k€ and the number of instruments available to me is limited. The instruments performance are well established: accuracy and precision, sensitivity and selectivity. Most of the instruments I work with are multicomponent analysers; the ability to deconvolute interference from gas species has been vastly improved over the years by signal resolution and multivariate calibration. While industrial process monitoring normally are discrete measurements, fugitive emissions and environmental monitoring generally improve with spatial resolution. This has been an important driving force for the development of low cost gas sensors. While the analytical performance ofte...