Abstract—Formaldehyde is a carcinogenic volatile organic
compound that is largely used in the fabrication process of a
variety of household products, being sometimes released indoor
in concentrations that are beyond the limits recommended by
the World Health Organization. The current commercially
available formaldehyde sensors are far from simultaneously
being ultra-portable, highly sensitive (< 1 ppb), real-time, and
especially cost-efficient. This work aims to study the feasibility
to miniaturize the formaldehyde sensing system down to a
palm hand device, based on the microfluidic Hantzsch reaction
method and fluorescence detection. A Gas-Liquid Micro-
Reactor based on integration of a hydrophobic membrane
inside a polymer flat chip is proposed and its formaldehyde
trapping yield is planned to be further tested. By combining
contact sensing with time-resolved CMOS sensors, the
dimensions of the fluorescence detection component could go
down to 10 mm × 20 mm × 30 mm by using commercialavailable
components and therefore, enabling continuous and
fast-response measurements using small volumes and low
concentration samples.
Index Terms—Contact sensing, micro-fabrication, on-chip
membrane-based gas-liquid contacting, time-resolved CMOS
sensing.
Daniel Mariuta is with the Institute of Microstructure Technology (IMT),
76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT),
Germany and Clément Ader Institute (ICA), CNRS, INSA, ISAESUPAERO,
Mines Albi, UPS, Université de Toulouse, 31400 Toulouse,
France (e-mail: daniel.mariuta@kit.edu).
Lucien Baldas and Stéphane Colin are with Clément Ader Institute
(ICA), CNRS, INSA, ISAE-SUPAERO, Mines Albi, UPS, Université de
Toulouse, 31400 Toulouse, France (e-mail: lucien.baldas@insa-toulouse.fr,
stephane.colin@insa-toulouse.fr).
Stéphane Le Calvé is with L’Institut de Chimie et Procédés Pour
L’énergie, L’Environnement et la Santé (ICPEES), Université de
Strasbourg, France (e-mail: slecalve@unistra.fr).
Jahn G. Korvink and Jürgen J. Brandner are with the Institute of
Microstructure Technology (IMT), 76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen,
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) (e-mail: jan.korvink@kit.edu,
juergen.brandner@kit.edu).
[PDF]
Cite: Daniel Măriuța, Lucien Baldas, Stéphane Colin, Stéphane Le Calvé, Jan G. Korvink, and Jürgen J. Brandner, "Prototyping a Microfluidic Sensor for Real-Time Detection of Airborne Formaldehyde," International Journal of Chemical Engineering
and Applications vol. 11, no. 1, pp. 23-28, 2020.
