The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 28, 2014
Filed:
Jun. 26, 2013
Paul R. Ohodnicki, Jr., Alison Park, PA (US);
Congjun Wang, Bethel Park, PA (US);
Mark A. Andio, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Paul R. Ohodnicki, Jr., Alison Park, PA (US);
Congjun Wang, Bethel Park, PA (US);
Mark A. Andio, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
The disclosure relates to a method of detecting a change in a chemical composition by contacting a doped oxide material with a monitored stream, illuminating the doped oxide material with incident light, collecting exiting light, monitoring an optical signal based on a comparison of the incident light and the exiting light, and detecting a shift in the optical signal. The doped metal oxide has a carrier concentration of at least 10/cm, a bandgap of at least 2 eV, and an electronic conductivity of at least 10S/cm, where parameters are specified at a temperature of 25° C. The optical response of the doped oxide materials results from the high carrier concentration of the doped metal oxide, and the resulting impact of changing gas atmospheres on that relatively high carrier concentration. These changes in effective carrier densities of conducting metal oxide nanoparticles are postulated to be responsible for the change in measured optical absorption associated with free carriers. Exemplary doped metal oxides include but are not limited to Al-doped ZnO, Sn-doped InO, Nb-doped TiO, and F-doped SnO.