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Design and Analysis of CO 2 Sensor using COMSOL Multiphysics

Conference Paper · October 2016

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Sachin B Umbarkar Gajendrasingh Rajput

MAEER`s MIT College of Engineering Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology
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 Design and Analysis of CO2 Sensor using COMSOL
Multiphysics
Sachin B. Umbarkar, Gajendrasingh Y. Rajput, Ramesh Vasappanavara
Department of Electronics Engineering, RAIT, Nerul, Navi-Mumbai: 400706
Email:sachin.umb@gmail.com, gyrajput@gmail.com

Abstract— In this paper, a novel carbon dioxide sensor is conditioning, and environmental monitoring due to the
introduced. At present many CO2 sensors are available, but they enormous increase of CO2 levels in the atmosphere because of
all required power in the order of few watts, therefore they are green house effects explain in the [7]. Solid state
not suitable for long term unattended operation. This paper gives potentiometric CO2 sensors are very promising to detect low
the brief description of CO2 sensor modeling using COMSOL levels of CO2 concentrations, also they provide the fast
Multiphysics (MEMS module). These sensors are inexpensive, response, simplicity and long term durability.
highly selective and sensitive. We found the results of CO2 sensor The sensor’s electromotive force (emf) shows a linear
electric potential variation at 350oC temperature with high relationship with the logarithm of CO2 concentration based on
reliability using less power. This advance will enable a new class solid electrolyte for air quality control system is explain in [8].
of portable CO2 sensors to be constructed with sub-millimeter In Electronic noses for monitoring environmental pollution
size and microwatt power. and building regression model prescribed the detail case study
Keywords—COMSOL Multiphysics, CO2 gas Sensor, about the present system for examining the use of different
I. INTRODUCTION sensors grid system concerning urban air pollution monitoring
The CO2 gas in the environment is one of the major for carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide (CO, CO2) gases for
cause of global warming, thus monitoring CO2 gas in the three different regions in Alexandria- Egypt and 2 different
environment is important for good environment conditions. traffic roads [9]. In solid-state potentiometric CO2 sensor in
The high speed detection of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) thick film technology for breath analysis described with the
sensor is today’s need. Presently so many CO2 sensors are detail monitoring of the CO2 concentration which is useful in
available, normally they are fabricated by using the infrared many applications, for example to determine the air quality, to
sensing devices (IRD), but the size of these sensors are quite monitor food quality or for breath analysis [9]. In [10] it is
large and they required a very high power and temperature for proposed a low-power-consumption CO2 gas sensor using
the operation. In this paper we proposed a designed of CO2 ionic liquids for green energy management. They study the
sensor in micrometer size (110 µm), which is designed by impedance of the iconic liquid material decreases as the
using MEMS module of COMSOL Multiphysics software concentration of the CO2 gas increases in the air.
(RAIT License). In this paper we proposed a sensor which protects the
The different type of CO2 sensors currently used are Gold electric terminals of sensor by dropping the foam drop
mixed oxide sensors [2], NASICON-based sensors [3], carbon over the sensor electrodes, which reduce the atmospheric
nanotube sensors [4], gas chromatographs and spectroscopic oxygen effect on the sensor performance. In this sensor model
sensors (non dispersive infrared-NIRD). Also in [4], the detail we are investigate the electric potential variation with respect
on wireless, passive carbon gas sensor is given. This type of to the arc length plotted on the top surface gold electrodes of
sensor have the drawback like high power consumption, need the CO2 sensor. The sensor consists of an interdigitated
high operating temperature, not easy for mobility circuits and transducer (IDT) etched onto a piezoelectric SiO2 substrate
complicated operating procedure. NIRD sensors required more and covered with the foam material. The mass of the foam
power input to order of milliwatts and can cost between 50 to material increases as it increases the absorption of CO2 from
500 USD. Potentiometric mixed oxide sensors and NASICON air. The bottom layer of copper material is work as a heater for
based sensor are quite difficult to get stabilized measurement CO2 sensor.
[5], these type of sensors are depend on concentration of II. MODEL DEFINITION
oxygen and operating temperature should be more than 350oC.
The CO2 sensor can be used to calibrate high temperature A. The Geometry of the CO2 sensor
performance of the sensor; various sensors always have Fig. 1 shows a cross sectional view of the CO2 in the
thermal inertia and finite heat conductance, which distort the COMSOL Multiphysics software. The gold electrodes are
waveform of the temperature versus time [6]. Presently, it is mounted on the both lateral surfaces of SiO2 and Si-surface
necessary to provide high quality CO2 gas sensors for various layer. The upper surface is painted by a BF4 foam material to
fields like food industries, agriculture industries, air- protect the electro-active portion of the sensor, the droplet
then cover the entire surface of the sensor. BF4 is the best
material used to reduce the electrochemical reduction of CO2
to CO.

Fig.2 Surface potential distribution

Figure 1: Geometry and Dimensions of the CO2 sensor

Fig.1. also shows the dimensional view of the sensor, the

height of the sensor is 7µm and the length of the sensor is
120µm. The gap between the two electrodes is 10µm and from
both the border side it is 5 µm distances maintained.
B. Boundary Conditions
The model is simulated under with elastic material
over the piezoelectric material and the foam is at the upper
layer of the model. Foam is used to absorb the CO2 gas. The Fig. 3 Electric Potential distribution after deformation
model has periodic boundary condition at the vertical edge and
simulated for Eigen frequency as a solver. Solid mechanics, The bottom layers have silicon material properties given
electrostatics, electric current and heat transfer physics are below in table:
sequentially solved in the 2D platform. For the solid state Material Properties:
Propert Material Name
mechanics the calculation for Eigen frequency is give in y
equation (1)-(3). Name SiO2 Foam Gold Silicon Uni
(1) t
(2) Electric 0 1 sigma_soli rho_solid_1 S/m
Conducti [S/m d_1(T[1/K] (T[1/K])
(3) vity ] [S/m] [kg/m^3]
Relative 4.2 {28.7, 85.2, 6.9 {28.7, 85.2,
permittiv 85.2} 85.2}
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION ity
Density 2200 rho(T[1/K])[k Rho rho_solid_1(T[1 Kg/
The irreversible reaction of SiO2 and CO2 is given in (4). [kg/ g/m^3] (T[1/K])[k /K])[kg/m^3] m3
SiO(2-+ CO2SiO(2-)]* +(CO2)- (4) m^3] g/m^3]
Young’s 70e9 E_PIB E(T[1/K])[ E_solid_polycry Pa
Where, produced CO2 is negatively charged. When CO2 get Module [Pa] Pa] stalline_1(T[1/K
adsorb on SiO2 layer electrons are transferred from SiO2 to ])[Pa]
CO2 i.e. CO2 extract electrons from SiO2. As electrons are Poission’ 0.17 nu_PIB 1 nu_solid_polycr 1
transferred from SiO2, the potential of SiO2 is increases (*). s ratio ystalline_1(T[1/
K])
Potential distribution in SiO2 is increases with increase in Thermal 1.4 k_solid_101_ k_solid_1( W/(
concentration of CO2. The basic cause of impedance varies Conducti [W/( kPa_1(T[1/K] T[1/K])[W/ m·
with CO2 concentration is shown by following graph. vity m*K )[W/(m*K)] (m*K)] K)
The potential distribution at different layer of )]
material is modeled using COMSOL Multiphysics software.
The fig.2 shows the surface potential distribution in layered
The surface displacement is maximum at the foam layer of
2D view. The 350oC temperature heater is placed at the bottom
the sensor. This layer is at the top of the sensor which covers
boundary of the sensor. This heater has copper alloy material
the gold electrode of apposite polarity. The maximum surface
which has thermal conductivity capacity of 400 W/mK displacement is 7.16×10-3 µm. The boundary condition is fixed
comparable with the gold material. The copper material type at the bottom layer of heater and flexible at the top layer
decreases the overall cost of the sensor. The optimum design of foam. The electric potential distribution is shown in fig. 4.
is simulated and its deformation effect is shown in fig. 3. The 2d cut line arc is drawn parallel to bottom surface of the
electrode. The potential variation versus arc length is given in
fig.5.
 CO2 Laser,"IEEE SENSORS 2006, EXCO, Daegu, Korea / October 22-
25, 2006..
[7] L.Satyanarayana, Gwang Ho Kim, Woon Young Lee, Whyo Sup Noh,
Jin Seong Park "A low temperature potentionmetric CO2 sensor
combined with SiO2:B2O3:LI2O3:BI2O3 composite metal oxide” IEEE
SENSORS 2006, EXCO, Daegu, Korea / October 22-25, 2006
[8] K. Kaneyasu, K. Otsuka, Y. Setoguchi, S. Sonoda, T. Nakahara, I. Aso ,
N. Nakagaichi, “A carbon dioxide gas sensor based on solid electrolyte
for air quality control”, Science Direct , Sensors and Actuators B 66
2000 56–58.
[9] Iman Morsi , “Electronic Noses for Monitoring Environmental
Pollution and Building Regression Model”, IEEE Conference, Orlando,
Florida, U.S.A 10 - 13 November 2008.
[10] Masahito Honda, Y. Takei, K. Ishizu, H. Imamoto, T. Itoh, R. Maeda,
K. Matsumoto, I. Shimoyama, “Low-power-consumption CO2 gas
sensor using ionic liquids for Green energy management”, IEEE
Fig. 4 Electric Potential distribution Conference, Taipei, 28-31 Oct. 2012.

Fig. 5 Electric Potential Vs Arc length

CONCLUSION
It is observed that the sub-millimeter structure is deformed due
to the potential variation in CO2 sensor. The surface potential
variation is observed and its variation along the arc length is
plotted. Also the copper heater has better thermal conductivity
and it will reduce the cost of sensor. The temperature variation
and its effect on the CO2 sensor model can be simulated using
same model.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We would like to express my deepest appreciation to all those
who provided us the possibility to complete this report. A
special gratitude we give to our Dr. Vijay D Patil (President
D Y Patil Group), Dr. Ramesh Vasappanavara (Principal
RAIT), whose contribution in stimulating suggestions and
encouragement, helped us to do this research work. Special
thanks go to HOD, Electronics who help us to get the
COMSOL software and also gave us his valuable suggestion
for doing this research work.
REFERENCES

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