• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.130-133
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• 1999

In this work, a capacitance-type alcohol gas sensor using porous silicon layer is developed to apply for breath alcohol measurement and its characteristics are estimated at room temperature. Current alcohol sensors using metal oxides such as tin-oxide are not only difficult to measure low alcohol concentration, but also should heat at $200\;to\;400^{\circ}C$ to improve the sensitivity. But the sensor using porous silicon layer has good sensitivity even at room temperature by very large effective surface area and suitable structure to fabricate integrated micro sensors. In the experiment, the capacitance was measured for the range of 0 to $0.5\%$ alcohol concentration with the interval of $0.05\%$, in which alcohol solution was kept at 25, 36, and $45^{\circ}C$ by a heater. As the result, good linearity was observed and the capacitance increased about 1.1, 2.6 and $4.6\%$ per the increment of $0.1\%$ alcohol concentration each temperature, respectively, at the frequency of 120 Hz.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.267-270
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• 2010

Sn doped $In_2O_3$ (ITO) and ITO/Cu/ITO (ICI) multilayer films were prepared on glass substrates with a reactive radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputter without intentional substrate heating, and then the influence of the Cu interlayer on the methanol gas sensitivity of the ICI films were considered. Although both ITO and ICI film sensors had the same thickness of 100 nm, the ICI sensors had a sandwich structure of ITO 50 nm/Cu 5 nm/ITO 45 nm. The ICI films showed a ten times higher carrier density than that of the pure ITO films. However, the Cu interlayer may also have caused the decrement of carrier mobility because the interfaces between the ITO and Cu interlayer acted as a barrier to carrier movement. Although the ICI films had two times a lower mobility than that of the pure ITO films, the ICI films had a higher conductivity of $3.6{\cdot}10^{-4}\;{\Omega}cm$ due to a higher carrier density. The changes in the sensitivity of the film sensors caused by methanol gas ranging from 50 to 500 ppm were measured at room temperature. The ICI sensors showed a higher gas sensitivity than that of the ITO single layer sensors. Finally, it can be concluded that the ICI film sensors have the potential to be used as improved methanol gas sensors.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.237-241
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• 2018

The real-time enrichment and detection of pathogens are serious issues and rapidly evolving field of research because of the ability of these pathogens to cause infectious diseases. In general, bacterial detection is accomplished by conventional colony counting or by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) after DNA extraction. As colony counting requires considerable time to cultivate, PCR is an attractive method for rapid detection. A small number of pathogens can cause diseases. Hence, a pretreatment process, such as enrichment is essential for detecting bacteria in an actual environment. Thus, in this study, we developed a microfluidic chip capable of performing rapid enrichment of bacteria and the extraction of their genes. A lectin, i.e., Concanavalin A (ConA), which shows binding affinity to the surface of most bacteria, was coated on the surface of magnetic particles to nonspecifically capture bacteria. It was subsequently concentrated through magnetic forces in a microfluidic channel. To lyse the captured bacteria, magnetic particles were irradiated by a wavelength of 532nm. The photo-thermal effect on the particles was sufficient for extracting DNA, which was consequently utilized for the identification of bacteria. Our device will help monitor the existence of bacteria in various environmental situations such as water, air, and soil.