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Student Innovator at Rensselaer Uses Graphene Foam To Detect Subtle Traces of Hazardous Gases and Explosives
$30,000 Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prizes
Awarded to Inventive Students at Three Leading
Universities
Fazel Yavari
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Fazel Yavari has developed a new sensor to detect extremely
small quantities of hazardous gases. The Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute doctoral student harnessed the power of the world’s
thinnest material, graphene, to create a device that is
durable, inexpensive to make, and incredibly sensitive.
A student in the Department of Mechanical,
Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering at Rensselaer, Yavari’s
sensor opens the door to a new generation of gas detectors for
use by bomb squads, defense and law enforcement officials, as
well as in industrial settings. For this innovation, Yavari has
been named the winner of the 2012 $30,000 Lemelson-MIT
Rensselaer Student Prize. He is among the three 2012 $30,000
Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prize winners announced
today.
“Innovating solutions to the challenges of tomorrow requires
a certain kind of individual—one who is ready and willing to
take calculated risks and seize promising opportunities. These
architects of change push forward the state of the art, and can
affect progress on a global scale,” said Rensselaer President
Shirley Ann Jackson. “Fazel Yavari, with his creative
exploitation of graphene to create a promising new gas sensor,
is a stellar example of such an architect of change. We
congratulate him, and applaud all of the winners and finalists
of the Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prize for innovating a
bolder, brighter future.”
Yavari is the sixth recipient of the Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer
Student Prize. First given in 2007, the prize is awarded
annually to a Rensselaer senior or graduate student who has
created or improved a product or process, applied a technology
in a new way, redesigned a system, or demonstrated remarkable
inventiveness in other ways.
“This year’s Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prize winners
and finalists from MIT, RPI, and UIUC are helping to fulfill
the country’s need for innovation. These students’ passion for
invention and their ideas will improve people’s lives around
the world,” states Joshua Schuler, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program.
“We applaud their accomplishments that will also undoubtedly
inspire future generations of inventors.”
For videos and photos of Yavari and other award finalists,
please visit: www.eng.rpi.edu/lemelson
Graphene-Powered Gas Detection
With his project, titled “High Sensitivity Detection
of Hazardous Gases Using a Graphene Foam Network,” Yavari
overcomes the shortcomings that have prevented
nanostructure-based gas detectors from reaching the
marketplace.
Detecting trace amounts of hazardous gases present within
air is a critical safety and health consideration in many
different situations, from industrial manufacturing and
chemical processing to bomb detection and environmental
monitoring. Conventional gas sensors are either too bulky and
expensive, which limits their use in many applications, or they
are not sensitive enough to detect trace amounts of gases.
Also, many commercial sensors require very high temperatures in
order to adequately detect gases, and in turn require large
amounts of power.
Researchers have long sought to leverage the power of
nanomaterials for gas detection. Individual nanostructures like
graphene, an atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged like a
nanoscale chicken-wire fence, are extremely sensitive to
chemical changes. However, creating a device based on a single
nanostructure is costly, highly complex, and the resulting
devices are extremely fragile, prone to failure, and offer
inconsistent readings.
Yavari has overcome these hurdles and created a device that
combines the high sensitivity of a nanostructured material with
the durability, low price, and ease of use of a macroscopic
device. His new graphene foam sensor, about the size of a
postage stamp and as thick as felt, works at room temperature,
is considerably less expensive to make, and still very
sensitive to tiny amounts of gases. The sensor works by reading
the changes in the graphene foam’s electrical conductivity as
it encounters gas particles and they stick to the foam’s
surface. Another benefit of Yavari’s device is its ability to
quickly and easily remove these stuck chemicals by applying a
small electric current.
The new graphene foam sensor has been engineered to detect
the gases ammonia and nitrogen dioxide, but can be configured
to work with other gases as well. Ammonia detection is
important as the gas is commonly used in industrial processes,
and ammonia is a byproduct of several explosives. Nitrogen
dioxide is also a byproduct of several explosives, as well as a
closely monitored pollutant found in combustion exhaust and
auto emissions. Yavari’s sensor can detect both gases in
quantities as small as 0.5 parts-per-million at room
temperature.
Determined Innovator and Engineer
Yavari joined Rensselaer in 2009 as a member of the
research group of Nikhil Koratkar,
professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering and
materials science and engineering at Rensselaer. In his time at
Rensselaer, Yavari has presented his findings at several
international conferences, and he has been the author of
several studies published in peer-reviewed journals including
Nature Materials, Nano Letters,
Scientific Reports, and Small.
“Fazel is among the most talented and skilled
experimentalists of all the graduate students I’ve had the
pleasure of working with,” said Koratkar, who is Yavari’s
academic adviser. “He is extremely innovative, and has a proven
ability to develop unique and creative solutions to the most
vexing problems. I am very pleased, but not surprised, at his
success in winning this outstanding recognition.”
Growing up in Isfahan, Iran, Yavari had an inquisitive mind
and showed an early inclination for mathematics. His parents,
both high school teachers, encouraged him to study math and
science. They were tremendously pleased to see their son win
the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize.
After earning his doctoral degree from Rensselaer later this
year, Yavari plans to continue conducting research in the field
of nanomaterials and nanodevices either in academia or the
private sector.
Lemelson-MIT Collegiate Student Prizes
Winners of the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Collegiate
Student Prize were also announced today at their respective
universities:
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Lemelson-MIT
Student Prize winner Miles C. Barr has developed solar
cells with the ability to be fabricated on a variety of
everyday surfaces, from textiles to car windows. By
eliminating the professional installation fee required for
rigid solar panels, this approach has the potential to reduce
the cost of current solar technology and create an
opportunity for universal use of solar energy.
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Lemelson-MIT
Illinois Student Prize winner Kevin Karsh has developed a
new technique for inserting objects and special effects into
photographs and videos. Karsh’s method requires no scene
measurements, and can be performed by novice users in only a
few minutes. This tool will greatly reduce the time and cost
of creating visual effects, and has exiting applications for
home redecoration and augmented reality.
About the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student
Prize
The $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize is funded
through a partnership with the Lemelson-MIT Program, which has
awarded the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize to outstanding
student inventors at MIT since 1995.
ABOUT THE LEMELSON-MIT PROGRAM
Celebrating innovation, inspiring
youth
The Lemelson-MIT Program celebrates outstanding
innovators and inspires young people to pursue creative lives
and careers through invention.
Jerome H. Lemelson, one of U.S. history’s most prolific
inventors, and his wife, Dorothy, founded the Lemelson-MIT
Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1994.
It is funded by The Lemelson Foundation and administered by the
School of Engineering. The Foundation sparks, sustains, and
celebrates innovation and the inventive spirit. It supports
projects in the U.S. and developing countries that nurture
innovators and unleash invention to advance economic, social,
and environmentally sustainable development. To date The
Lemelson Foundation has donated or committed more than U.S.
$150 million in support of its mission. http://web.mit.edu/invent/
For more information on past winners of the $30,000
Lemelson-MIT Rensselaer Student Prize, visit:
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Published
March 7,
2012 |
Contact: Michael Mullaney
Phone: (518) 276-6161
E-mail: mullam@rpi.edu |
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