United States Department of Commerce Technology Adm nistration National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST Special Publication 865 LI '.^^i^..^ NIST Workshop on Gas Sensors: Strategies for Future Technologies Proceedings of a Workshop Held in Gaithersburg, Maryland September 8-9, 1993 Steve Semancik, Editor QC 100 U57 NO. 865 1994 Jhe National Institute of Standards ana lecnnology was established in 1988 by Congress to "assist industry in the development of technology . needed to improve product quality, to modernize manufacmring processes, to ensure product reliability . and to facilitate rapid commercialization ... of products based on new scientific discoveries." NIST, originally founded as the National Bureau of Standards in 1901, works to strengthen U.S. industry's competitiveness; advance science and engineering; and improve public health, safety, and the environment. 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CO 80303. ^Some elements at Boulder, CO 80303. NIST Special Publication 865 NIST Workshop on Gas Sensors: Strategies for Future Technologies Proceedings of a Workshop Held in Gaithersburg, Maryland September 8-9, 1993 Steve Semancik, Editor Process Measurements Division Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001 Issued December 1994 U.S. Department of Commerce Ronald H. Brown, Secretary Technology Administration Mary L. Good, Under Secretary for Technology National Institute of Standards and Technology Arati Prabhakar, Director National Institute of Standards U.S. Government Printing Office For sale by the Superintendent and Technology Washington: 1994 of Documents Special Publication 865 U.S. Government Printing Office Natl. Inst. Stand. Technol. Washington, DC 20402 Spec. Publ. 865 147 pages (Dec. 1994) CODEN: NSPUE2 Abstract This Proceedings issue describes a Workshop on gas sensing held in Gaithersburg, MD, September 8-9, 1993. Future gas sensors with improved response characteristics, higher reliability, and lower cost can be expected to have increased application in diverse areas, including environmental monitoring, process control, and personal safety. This Workshop brought together gas sensor manufacturers, present and potential users, and researchers to explore ways to incorporate research discoveries and emerging technologies more efficiently into new, high-performance sensors. The Proceedings includes publications on invited and contributed presentations, reports on discussions of Emerging Technologies and Commercialization and Standards issues, and reports summarizing breakout sessions on gas sensing for Process Control in Manufacturing, Indoor Air Quality and Personal Safety, Outdoor Environmental Monitoring and Site Remediation, and Automotive and Other Transportation. iii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY NIST WORKSHOP ON GAS SENSORS: STRATEGIES FOR FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES September 8-9, 1993 National Institute of Standards and Technology Gaithersburg, MD 20899 Motivation Advances in materials, electronics, microfabrication, and the understanding of transducing chemistry are creating opportunities for developing new generations of gas sensors with improved performance and lower cost. Such improvements can be expected to greatly increase the application of gas sensors in wide-ranging areas including personal safety, process control and environmental monitoring. While the market potential is large, workers in this field often recognize a time lag for incorporating new discoveries into sensing products. This Workshop, entitled Gas Sensors: Strategies for Future Technologies, was held as a timely attempt to identify and discuss the barriers connected with developing and commercializing new gas sensor devices suited to an expanding range of compositional monitoring applications. Most other forums on sensor development and use have centered around research conferences and highly specific application areas. A unique feature of this Workshop was that it provided an open environment with broad participation focused both (1) on promising technologies for creating reliable devices, and (2) toward exposing weaknesses in the chain of research, development, commercialization and application that can negatively impact domestic competitiveness in the field of gas sensing. Chemical gas sensing is at a relatively young stage in its development, especially in comparison with other technologies, such as integrated circuitry or even certain kinds of physical sensors (including accelerometers). While strategies for accelerating development were focused on, it was not the intent of this first NIST Gas Sensor Workshop to produce a detailed roadmap for the field. Workshop Organization To comprehensively examine various perspectives on relevant issues, this two-day Workshop encouraged direct interactions between gas sensor manufacturers, present and potential users, and researchers. The Workshop included a collection of 12 invited presentations selected to describe not only differing gas sensing technologies and measurement needs, but also to represent the viewpoints held at the various types of institutions and agencies in attendance. Contributed papers were presented in a poster session held on the afternoon of the first day. A special (off-site) poster session was also arranged for those who wished to display gas sensor product information. Two types of discussion sessions were held during the second day. Cross-cutting, application-oriented Breakout Groups, of manageable size for interactive discussion, were held in 4 areas: Process Control in Manufacturing (Chaired by John Steichen of Dupont), Indoor Air Quality and Personal Safety (Chaired by Jarell Wenger of Johnson Controls), Outdoor Environmental Monitoring and Site Remediation (Chaired by Barry Wise of Batelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories), and Automotive and Other Transportation V (Chaired by Galen Fisher of General Motors Research and Development Center). Within these sessions various sensing approaches were compared for a related class of gas measurement problems. Participants were encouraged to move between the various sessions, and a significant fraction did so. The second type of discussion had more of a town-meeting format, and also served as the closing session of the Workshop. Two primary themes were focused on in the latter discussion: The Role of Emerging Technologies in Gas Sensing, and Commercialization and Standards Issues. During the first day a representative of the Advanced Technology Program made an informal presentation outlining the operation and direction of this funding component of NIST. Attendees were also offered an opportunity to tour 8 sensor-related facilities at NIST. The Workshop was attended by approximately 135 persons from 30 states, as representives of small companies, large companies, federal agencies, government laboratories and