Weber Ines C, Rüedi Pascal, Šot Petr, Güntner Andreas T, Pratsinis Sotiris E
Particle Technology Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland.
Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, CH-8049, Switzerland.
Adv Sci (Weinh). 2022 Feb;9(4):e2103853. doi: 10.1002/advs.202103853. Epub 2021 Nov 27.
More than 1 million workers are exposed routinely to carcinogenic benzene, contained in various consumer products (e.g., gasoline, rubbers, and dyes) and released from combustion of organics (e.g., tobacco). Despite strict limits (e.g., 50 parts per billion (ppb) in the European Union), routine monitoring of benzene is rarely done since low-cost sensors lack accuracy. This work presents a compact, battery-driven device that detects benzene in gas mixtures with unprecedented selectivity (>200) over inorganics, ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, and even challenging toluene and xylene. This can be attributed to strong Lewis acid sites on a packed bed of catalytic WO nanoparticles that prescreen a chemoresistive Pd/SnO sensor. That way, benzene is detected down to 13 ppb with superior robustness to relative humidity (RH, 10-80%), fulfilling the strictest legal limits. As proof of concept, benzene is quantified in indoor air in good agreement (R ≥ 0.94) with mass spectrometry. This device is readily applicable for personal exposure assessment and can assist the implementation of low-emission zones for sustainable environments.
超过100万工人经常接触致癌物质苯，苯存在于各种消费品（如汽油、橡胶和染料）中，并在有机物燃烧（如烟草燃烧）时释放出来。尽管有严格的限制（如欧盟为十亿分之五十），但由于低成本传感器缺乏准确性，苯的常规监测很少进行。这项工作展示了一种紧凑的、由电池驱动的设备，该设备能以前所未有的选择性（>200）检测混合气体中的苯，其选择性高于无机物、酮类、醛类、醇类，甚至对具有挑战性的甲苯和二甲苯也是如此。这可归因于催化WO纳米颗粒填充床上的强路易斯酸位点，该位点对化学电阻式Pd/SnO传感器进行预筛选。通过这种方式，能检测到低至13 ppb的苯，且对相对湿度（RH，10 - 80%）具有卓越的稳健性，符合最严格的法律限制。作为概念验证，该设备在室内空气中对苯的定量结果与质谱法高度一致（R≥0.94）。该设备易于应用于个人暴露评估，并有助于在可持续环境中实施低排放区。
