P5.7 - Simulation of a thermoelectric gas sensor to determine hydrocarbons in exhaust gases and to characterize catalyst materials
- Event
- AMA Conferences 2017
2017-05-30 - 2017-06-01
Nürnberg, Germany - Band
- Proceedings Sensor 2017
- Chapter
- P5 - Gas, Chemo and Biosensors
- Author(s)
- T. Ritter, S. Wiegärtner, G. Hagen, R. Moos - University of Bayreuth (Germany)
- Pages
- 720 - 722
- DOI
- 10.5162/sensor2017/P5.7
- ISBN
- 978-3-9816876-4-4
- Price
- free
Abstract
To determine the hydrocarbon (HC) concentration by an exhaust gas sensor, the thermoelectric sensing principle can be applied. A planar thermopile structure on a ceramic substrate enables measuring a temperature difference between a catalyst-coated and an inert area on the sensor. Exothermic reactions cause a temperature increase in the catalyst-coated area that can be measured as a voltage output of the thermopile. Temperature modulation of the overall sensor temperature allows for catalyst material characterization or even for differentiation between different HCs as the conversion behavior of the catalysts depends differently on temperature. The sensing principle is modeled by coupling the dominating physical effects. This allows very precise predictions that may further enhance the sensor performance.