A sulfur hexafluoride sensor using quantum cascade and CO2 laser-based photoacoustic spectroscopy

The increase in greenhouse gas emissions is a serious environmental problem and has stimulated the scientific community to pay attention to the need for detection and monitoring of gases released into the atmosphere. In this regard, the development of sensitive and selective gas sensors has been the subject of several research programs. An important greenhouse gas is sulphur hexafluoride, an almost non-reactive gas widely employed in industrial processes worldwide. Indeed it is estimated that it has a radiative forcing of 0.52 W/m(2). This work compares two photoacoustic spectrometers, one coupled to a CO2 laser and another one coupled to a Quantum Cascade (QC) laser, for the detection of SF6. The laser photoacoustic spectrometers described in this work have been developed for gas detection at small concentrations. Detection limits of 20 ppbv for CO2 laser and 50 ppbv for quantum cascade laser were obtained.