Project: Smellicopter

Nanomaterials for high-speed ethanol sensing: Drones for source localization

Course Project, Intro to Nanoscience, BITS Pilani.
Worked under Prof. Krishna Etika,

Goal: To conduct a literature survey and find nanomaterial-based sensors suitable for use on drones for ethanol sensing and source localization

• Clearly defined and outlined the problem statement, and recognized the key gas sensor parameters to be optimized
• Explored various nanomaterial options: metal oxides, organic materials and understood their sensing mechanisms
  • Recognized that the underlying backbone of all the designs is the adsorption of the analytes on the nanomaterials’ surfaces
• Examined low-power solutions like Triboelectric Nanogenerators and Optical gas sensors, and compared them against conventional adsorption-based resistive sensors
• Proposed a Silicon Microcavity based optical Sensor.