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Microcantilever

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Full-Text Articles in Engineering Mechanics

Monitoring Co Concentration In Fuel Cells Using Microcantilever Sensors, Tugba Demir Dec 2009

Monitoring Co Concentration In Fuel Cells Using Microcantilever Sensors, Tugba Demir

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Estimating the concentration of gases including carbon monoxide (CO) in the hydrogen fuel exiting the reformer and entering the fuel cell is imperative. A high concentration of CO can cause fuel-cell catalyst poisoning, which permanently destroys the cell. Current practices call for utilizing expensive and bulky spectral analyzers to achieve this task. In addition to their high cost, these methodologies, undoubtedly, hinder the portability and self-containment of the cell. To overcome these problems and achieve the desired objectives of a portable, self-contained, and real-time measurement module, this thesis presents and experimentally investigates a new enabling technology based on utilizing an …


On New Applications And Sensitivity Enhancement Of Cantilever-Based Sensing Systems, Calvin Bradley May 2008

On New Applications And Sensitivity Enhancement Of Cantilever-Based Sensing Systems, Calvin Bradley

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Cantilever-based Sensing Systems (CSS) have become a focal area for research with the rise of micro- and nanotechnology. History has led us to use cantilever beams as one of the foremost sensing devices for small scale applications, beginning with the atomic force microscopy, and then being expanded into numerous sensor devices. The CSS include such applications as accelerometers, thermal and chemical sensors which are expanding into the applications of mass sensing and material characterization. Soon, this technology may be used in 'lab on chip' biosensing applications.
This study covers the experimentation into new CSS applications and sensitivity enhancement. In order …


Nonlinear Modeling Of The Adsorption-Induced Surface Stress In Piezoelectrically-Driven Microcantilever Biosensors, Mana Afshari Aug 2007

Nonlinear Modeling Of The Adsorption-Induced Surface Stress In Piezoelectrically-Driven Microcantilever Biosensors, Mana Afshari

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Microcantilever-based biosensors are rapidly becoming an enabling sensing technology for a variety of label-free biological applications due to their extreme applicability, versatility and low cost. These sensors operate through the adsorption of species on the functionalized surface of microcantilevers. The adsorption of biological species induces surface stress which originates from the molecular interactions such as adhesion forces of attraction/repulsion, electrostatic forces or the surface charge redistribution of the underlying substrate. This surface stress, consequently, alters the resonance frequency of the microcantilever beam.
This study presents a general framework towards modeling resonance frequency changes induced due to the surface stress arising …