'Miniaturised air quality sensors - what works and what doesn't'

Part of the School Seminar Series

Speaker: Professor Alistair Lewis (University of York)

Host: Bill Bloss

Abstract: 

Low cost pollution sensors have been very widely publicised, in principle offering greatly increased information on the distribution of air pollution and a potential democratization of air quality measurements to amateur users. Peer-reviewed literature describing analytical performance and fit to observational requirements is sparse to non-existent. Sensor systems have followed a different technology adoption pathway to virtually all previous atmospheric instruments, moving directly from private finance development into public use. In this talk the results of a detailed study of air pollution sensors will be presented (for O3, NO, NO2, CO, O3, VOC, PM) including laboratory characterisation of co-pollutant interferences and field inter-comparisons against reference instruments. An assessment is made of their fitness for purpose for research applications and public use. The technological development of miniaturised VOC detection devices will be described in further detail including bulk sensor based systems and microfabricated chromatographic devices.