A Microfluidic based ZnO nanoparticle Ozone Sensors: Design and Simulation Approach

Ozone Detection plays a dominant role in improving the weather quality. Nowadays most conventional Ozone detectors are expensive and they consume high power. Previously, Ozone sensors were based on UV absorption with a moderate range of detecting. This kind of sensors was unwieldy, costly and with great energy utilization. Recently, many researchers focused on semiconductor gas detectors’ characteristics. Thickness, weightless, minimal effort control framework, and stretchability are counted as flexible substrates’ advantages. Furthermore, adding ZnO as the sensible material placed on the adaptable substrate is an essential choice in case of the various properties of ZnO. Designing a low cost and less power consumption sensor has become the goal. An Ozone sensor based on ZnO nanoparticles attracted many researcher attentions. In this paper, we present a method designing Microfluidic based ozone detection sensors. The ZnO nanoparticles were added to the substrate and the temperature changes in the presence of them, which gives us different sensor resistance in the ambient air including the Ozone gas. This sensor is one of the best according to its simple utilization, cheap price, and low power requirement. All steps of the design have been simulated with the help of COMSOL Multiphysics software.Ozone gas sensors consist of a flexible Kapton substrate along with two Titanium electrodes and a Platinum heater. The sensor was designed and simulated with the help of COMSOL Multiphysics 5.3 software using Thermoelectric physics. A homogeneous temperature around the sensitive zone is provided. Providing the desired temperature for the chemical reaction between absorbed Ozone and ZnO nanoparticles' electrons improves the sensor response. Following that, ZnO layer's resistance increases due to thickening of the ZnO surface which helps us define the Ozone gas in ambient air. In order to accelerate the detection process, a completely integrated peristaltic 18-stage electrostatic gas micropump containing active checkerboard microvalves is used which stacks the pressure differences from all stages and caters a great force. This micropump is located beside the flexible substrate and decreases the Ozone gas detecting time