Detection of bad indoor environment with a miniaturized gas sensor system

Bad indoor environment is often the reason for health impairment of people who spend most of their time indoors. Modern buildings are almost air tight and air exchange is too low. This problem often occurs in retrofitted buildings. A long time result can be mold formation in buildings. To get early information about bad indoor climate or mold formation, sensor systems which detect volatile organic compounds (VOC) are needed. The biggest challenge in measuring VOC gases in this scenario are the small concentrations. We present a miniaturized preconcentrating gas sensor system with two chambers for measuring organic gases. Preconcentration is realized with a thermoelectric element to activate sampling and desorption process in one chamber, delivering temperature gradients to a highly porous surface. The second chamber consists of a gas detecting element to indicate the preconcentrated VOC. By driving a temperature cycle with longtime cooling and fast heating the gas is preconcentrated and then desorbed quickly. Furthermore an electronic circuit board has been developed to control the complete system. The result is a complete sensor system with mechanical setup, electronic control, measurement, analyzation and peripheral communication. Measurements regarding temperature behavior of the system are performed, as measurements with VOC.