at Google ScholarTitle data
Geupel, Andrea ; Kubinski, David J. ; Mulla, Shadab ; Ballinger, Todd H. ; Chen, Hai-Ying ; Visser, Jacobus H. ; Moos, Ralf:
Integrating NOₓ Sensor for Automotive Exhausts : a Novel Concept.
In: Sensor Letters.
Vol. 9
(2011)
Issue 1
.
- pp. 311-315.
ISSN 1546-198X
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1166/sl.2011.1471
Abstract in another language
Emissions regulations concerning NOx are getting increasingly stringent. Thus, new technologies are being developed for the reduction of NOx in the exhaust pipe, especially for modern diesel and lean-burn gasoline vehicles. To meet the requirements of the On-Board Diagnosis (OBD) the correct function of all components of the exhaust aftertreatment system have to be controlled. For that challenge NOx sensors with a high sensitivity and a sufficient accuracy in the low ppm detection range for the detection of the reduced NOx emissions downstream of catalytic converters are required. We propose a novel gas sensor concept to fulfill this need: instead of detecting the actual NOx concentration instantaneously, the NOx molecules will be accumulated on an integrating NOx sensor device and the integrated amount of the analyte will be measured. By integration or summing up, this sensor is able to detect very low amounts of NOx. In first tests, a lean NOx trap (LNT) material was used successfully as sensitive layer collecting the analyte molecules from the gas. The integrating properties of these sensor devices were confirmed several times and it was shown that the instantaneous NOx concentration by itself was not influencing the sensor signal, rather its total accumulation over time. In first tests the cross sensitivities to oxygen and carbon dioxide were found to be negligible. The influence of the sensor temperature on the sensor performance was investigated. By varying the operating temperature in a wide range the effect on the sensitivity and on the measurement range of the integrating sensor were monitored.