Engineering topics

Ryan, Margaret A.

Publications and source records attributed to Ryan, Margaret A..

At least 19 records

NASA NTRS2012

Co-polymer Films for Sensors

Embodiments include a sensor comprising a co-polymer, the co-polymer comprising a first monomer and a second monomer. For some embodiments, the first monomer is poly-4-vinyl pyridine, and the second monomer is poly-4-vinyl pyridinium propylamine chloride. For some embodiments, the first monomer is polystyrene and the second monomer is poly-2-vinyl pyridinium propylamine chloride. For some embodiments, the first monomer is poly-4-vinyl pyridine, and the second monomer is poly-4-vinyl pyridinium benzylamine chloride. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Ryan, Margaret A.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Detection of Carbon Monoxide Using Polymer-Composite Films with a Porphyrin-Functionalized Polypyrrole

Post-fire air constituents that are of interest to NASA include CO and some acid gases (HCl and HCN). CO is an important analyte to be able to sense in human habitats since it is a marker for both prefire detection and post-fire cleanup. The need exists for a sensor that can be incorporated into an existing sensing array architecture. The CO sensor needs to be a low-power chemiresistor that operates at room temperature; the sensor fabrication techniques must be compatible with ceramic substrates. Early work on the JPL ElectronicNose indicated that some of the existing polymer-carbon black sensors might be suitable. In addition, the CO sensor based on polypyrrole functionalized with iron porphyrin was demonstrated to be a promising sensor that could meet the requirements. First, pyrrole was polymerized in a ferric chloride/iron porphyrin solution in methanol. The iron porphyrin is 5, 10, 15, 20-tetraphenyl-21H, 23Hporphine iron (III) chloride. This creates a polypyrrole that is functionalized with the porphyrin. After synthesis, the polymer is dried in an oven. Sensors were made from the functionalized polypyrrole by binding it with a small amount of polyethylene oxide (600 MW). This composite made films that were too resistive to be measured in the device. Subsequently, carbon black was added to the composite to bring the sensing film resistivity within a measurable range. A suspension was created in methanol using the functionalized polypyrrole (90% by weight), polyethylene oxide (600,000 MW, 5% by weight), and carbon black (5% by weight). The sensing films were then deposited, like the polymer-carbon black sensors. After deposition, the substrates were dried in a vacuum oven for four hours at 60 C. These sensors showed good response to CO at concentrations over 100 ppm. While the sensor is based on a functionalized pyrrole, the actual composite is more robust and flexible. A polymer binder was added to help keep the sensor material from delaminating from the electrodes, and carbon was added to improve the conductivity of the material.

Homer, Margie L.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Detection of Carbon Monoxide Using Polymer-Carbon Composite Films

A carbon monoxide (CO) sensor was developed that can be incorporated into an existing sensing array architecture. The CO sensor is a low-power chemiresistor that operates at room temperature, and the sensor fabrication techniques are compatible with ceramic substrates. Sensors made from four different polymers were tested: poly (4-vinylpryridine), ethylene-propylene-diene-terpolymer, polyepichlorohydrin, and polyethylene oxide (PEO). The carbon black used for the composite films was Black Pearls 2000, a furnace black made by the Cabot Corporation. Polymers and carbon black were used as received. In fact, only two of these sensors showed a good response to CO. The poly (4-vinylpryridine) sensor is noisy, but it does respond to the CO above 200 ppm. The polyepichlorohydrin sensor is less noisy and shows good response down to 100 ppm.

Homer, Margie L.↗

NASA NTRS2011

System for detecting and estimating concentrations of gas or liquid analytes

A sensor system for detecting and estimating concentrations of various gas or liquid analytes. In an embodiment, the resistances of a set of sensors are measured to provide a set of responses over time where the resistances are indicative of gas or liquid sorption, depending upon the sensors. A concentration vector for the analytes is estimated by satisfying a criterion of goodness using the set of responses. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Homer, Margie L.↗

NASA NTRS2010

Co-polymer films for sensors

Ryan, Margaret A.↗

NASA NTRS2009

JPL Electronic Nose

The JPL Electronic Nose (ENose) is a full-time, continuously operating event monitor designed to detect air contamination from spills and leaks in the crew habitat in the International Space Station. It fills the long-standing gap between onboard alarms and complex analytical instruments. ENose provides rapid, early identification and quantification of atmospheric changes caused by chemical species to which it has been trained. ENose can also be used to monitor cleanup processes after a leak or a spill.

Ryan, Margaret A.↗

NASA NTRS2008

Using Electronic Noses to Detect Tumors During Neurosurgery

It has been proposed to develop special-purpose electronic noses and algorithms for processing the digitized outputs of the electronic noses for determining whether tissue exposed during neurosurgery is cancerous. At present, visual inspection by a surgeon is the only available intraoperative technique for detecting cancerous tissue. Implementation of the proposal would help to satisfy a desire, expressed by some neurosurgeons, for an intraoperative technique for determining whether all of a brain tumor has been removed. The electronic-nose technique could complement multimodal imaging techniques, which have also been proposed as means of detecting cancerous tissue. There are also other potential applications of the electronic-nose technique in general diagnosis of abnormal tissue. In preliminary experiments performed to assess the viability of the proposal, the problem of distinguishing between different types of cultured cells was substituted for the problem of distinguishing between normal and abnormal specimens of the same type of tissue. The figure presents data from one experiment, illustrating differences between patterns that could be used to distinguish between two types of cultured cancer cells. Further development can be expected to include studies directed toward answering questions concerning not only the possibility of distinguishing among various types of normal and abnormal tissue but also distinguishing between tissues of interest and other odorous substances that may be present in medical settings.

Homer, Margie L.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Space Invariant Independent Component Analysis and ENose for Detection of Selective Chemicals in an Unknown Environment

In this paper, we present a space invariant architecture to enable the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to solve chemical detection from two unknown mixing chemical sources. The two sets of unknown paired mixture sources are collected via JPL 16-ENose sensor array in the unknown environment with, at most, 12 samples data collected. Our space invariant architecture along with the maximum entropy information technique by Bell and Sejnowski and natural gradient descent by Amari has demonstrated that it is effective to separate the two mixing unknown chemical sources with unknown mixing levels to the array of two original sources under insufficient sampled data. From separated sources, they can be identified by projecting them on the 11 known chemical sources to find the best match for detection. We also present the results of our simulations. These simulations have shown that 100% correct detection could be achieved under the two cases: a) under-completed case where the number of input (mixtures) is larger than number of original chemical sources; and b) regular case where the number of input is as the same as the number of sources while the time invariant architecture approach may face the obstacles: overcomplete case, insufficient data and cumbersome architecture.

ENose↗

NASA NTRS2006

Thermoelectric device with multiple, nanometer scale, elements

A thermoelectric device formed of nanowires on the nm scale. The nanowires are preferably of a size that causes quantum confinement effects within the wires. The wires are connected together into a bundle to increase the power density.

Fleurial, Jean-Pierre↗

NASA NTRS2006

Expanding the Capabilities of the JPL Electronic Nose for an International Space Station Technology Demonstration

An array-based sensing system based on polymer/carbon composite conductometric sensors is under development at JPL for use as an environmental monitor in the International Space Station. Sulfur dioxide has been added to the analyte set for this phase of development. Using molecular modeling techniques, the interaction energy between SO2 and polymer functional groups has been calculated, and polymers selected as potential SO2 sensors. Experiment has validated the model and two selected polymers have been shown to be promising materials for SO2 detection.

electronic noses↗

NASA NTRS2006

Use of the JPL Electronic Nose to detect leaks and spills in an enclosed environment

An electronic nose to be used as an air quality monitor in human habitats in space has been developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This device is capable of detecting, identifying and quantifying several organic and inorganic chemical species which might be present as contaminants in spacecraft air. The complete portable device, including sensors, electronics, and software for data analysis, has been extensively tested.

environmental monitoring↗

NASA NTRS2005

Space invariant independent component analysis and ENose for detection of selective chemicals in an unknown environment

In this paper, we present a space invariant topology to enable the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) to solve chemical detection from two unknown mixing chemical sources.

ENose↗

NASA NTRS2004

Microfabricated thermoelectric power-generation devices

A device for generating power to run an electronic component. The device includes a heat-conducting substrate (composed, e.g., of diamond or another high thermal conductivity material) disposed in thermal contact with a high temperature region. During operation, heat flows from the high temperature region into the heat-conducting substrate, from which the heat flows into the electrical power generator. A thermoelectric material (e.g., a BiTe alloy-based film or other thermoelectric material) is placed in thermal contact with the heat-conducting substrate. A low temperature region is located on the side of the thermoelectric material opposite that of the high temperature region. The thermal gradient generates electrical power and drives an electrical component.

Fleurial, Jean-Pierre↗

NASA NTRS2004

Compensating for Effects of Humidity on Electronic Noses

A method of compensating for the effects of humidity on the readouts of electronic noses has been devised and tested. The method is especially appropriate for use in environments in which humidity is not or cannot be controlled for example, in the vicinity of a chemical spill, which can be accompanied by large local changes in humidity. Heretofore, it has been common practice to treat water vapor as merely another analyte, the concentration of which is determined, along with that of the other analytes, in a computational process based on deconvolution. This practice works well, but leaves room for improvement: changes in humidity can give rise to large changes in electronic-nose responses. If corrections for humidity are not made, the large humidity-induced responses may swamp smaller responses associated with low concentrations of analytes. The present method offers an improvement. The underlying concept is simple: One augments an electronic nose with a separate humidity and a separate temperature sensor. The outputs of the humidity and temperature sensors are used to generate values that are subtracted from the readings of the other sensors in an electronic nose to correct for the temperature-dependent contributions of humidity to those readings. Hence, in principle, what remains after corrections are the contributions of the analytes only. Laboratory experiments on a first-generation electronic nose have shown that this method is effective and improves the success rate of identification of analyte/ water mixtures. Work on a second-generation device was in progress at the time of reporting the information for this article.

Homer, Margie↗

NASA NTRS2002

Microfabricated thermoelectric power-generation devices

Fleurial, Jean-Pierre↗

NASA NTRS2001

Detection of hydrazine (H) and (MMH) using cyranose E-nose

The Cyranose electronic nose (e-nose) has been used for the first time to detect hydrazine (H) and monomethyl hydrazine (MMH). The concentrations of hydrazine chosen in this study were 52 ppm (parts per million), 18 ppm, and 1.1 ppm and the concentrations of MMH was 14 ppm and 1 ppm. The Cyranose E-nose has detected hydrazine of 52 ppm and 18 ppm with a good response. The response of the E-Nose for 1.1 ppm hydrazine was insignificant. The response of E-Nose for 14 ppm MMH was significant and 1 ppm MMH was reasonably identifiable. The Cyranose E-Nose may be used to detect hydrazine and MMH with concentrations of at least 18 ppm and 1 ppm, respectively.

cyranose↗

NASA NTRS1998

Lifetime Modeling of Tin Electrodes for AMTEC Cells

In order to model the lifetime of the electrochemical cell in an Alkali Metal Thermal to Electric Converter (AMTEC), studies of TiN Electrodes on Beta-alumina solid electrolytes (BASE) have been made to determine the performace parameters over time. The first of a series of experiments in which TiN electrodes are studied in a Vapor Exposure Test Cell is described here, with preliminary results from electrochemical measurements made on the cell. The TiN electrodes tested here perform well, with minimal degradation over 1000 hours of operation at 850 degree C.

Electrochemical↗

NASA NTRS1997

Varying potential silicon carbide gas sensor

A hydrocarbon gas detection device operates by dissociating or electro-chemically oxidizing hydrocarbons adsorbed to a silicon carbide detection layer. Dissociation or oxidation are driven by a varying potential applied to the detection layer. Different hydrocarbon species undergo reaction at different applied potentials so that the device is able to discriminate among various hydrocarbon species. The device can operate at temperatures between 100.degree. C. and at least 650.degree. C., allowing hydrocarbon detection in hot exhaust gases. The dissociation reaction is detected either as a change in a capacitor or, preferably, as a change of current flow through an FET which incorporates the silicon carbide detection layers. The silicon carbide detection layer can be augmented with a pad of catalytic material which provides a signal without an applied potential. Comparisons between the catalytically produced signal and the varying potential produced signal may further help identify the hydrocarbon present.

Shields, Virgil B.↗