Detail Project and Funding

Abstract: The EMPATIA@Lecco project is focused on the theme of rehabilitation. In particular, the project aims to deliver to the patient and his family new tools to cope with the chronic pathology, to enhance the ability of daily-life management, to develop more conscious behaviours and more suitable management of the disease at domicile, to give back to the subject the dignity of his person and a better quality of life.
In this framework, the CNR-INO role is dedicated to develop gas sensor technologies based on different transduction mechanism: optical and electrical.
The optical technology is based on the photoacoustic technique, in which the pressure variations induced in the gas from the absorption of the excitation-laser are detected through the oscillation of a thin silicon sheet (cantilever). The cantilever oscillation is further measured by means of an optical interferometer. This technology allows selective and real-time detection of harmful trace gases in air, such as for example CO₂.
Chemiresistors (semiconductor sensors that use their own electrical resistance during exposure to a gaseous species) were instead used to track the patient’s health status by analyzing the odor of organic liquids. These sensors are not selective and are particularly effective in applications where the target is not a single molecule but a complex set of molecules (odor). Different odors are discriminated in an array of different chemiresistors, whose collective response is handled by a pattern recognition software.

The Scientific Results:
1) The contributions of junctions and nanowires/nanotubes in conductive networks
2) Application of a Micro-Machined Electronic Nose to Detect Escherichia Coli in Human Urine Samples
3) The Electronic nose device for the identification of chicken degradation
4) Early detection of fish degradation by electronic nose
5) Electrical properties of materials and devices based on networks of 1D nanostructures
6) Response Times of Metal-Oxide Chemiresistors: Comparison Between the Isothermal and Temperature Modulation Modes
7) Morphological Effects in SnO2 Chemiresistors for Ethanol Detection: A Review in Terms of Central Performances and Outliers