{"id":73611,"date":"2024-05-21T14:51:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T14:51:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors"},"modified":"2024-05-21T15:16:05","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T15:16:05","slug":"rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors","title":{"rendered":"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Rwandan professor Aristide Gumyusenge, have developed a detector that could provide continuous monitoring for the presence of toxic gases at home or in industrial settings, at a low cost.<\/p>\n

The new system combines two existing technologies, bringing them together in a way that preserves the advantages of each while avoiding their limitations.<\/p>\n

The team used a material called a metal-organic framework, or MOF, which is highly sensitive to tiny traces of gas but whose performance quickly degrades, and combined it with a polymer material that is highly durable and easier to process, but much less sensitive.<\/p>\n

MOFs are highly porous, have large surface areas, and come in a variety of compositions. Some can be insulators, but the ones used for this work are highly electrically conductive.<\/p>\n

With their sponge-like form, they are effective at capturing molecules of various gases, and the sizes of their pores can be tailored to make them selective for particular kinds of gases.<\/p>\n

Rwandan professor Aristide Gumyusenge, team leader of researchers who developped that new system. Courtesy<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are using them as a sensor, you can recognise if the gas is there if it has an effect on the resistivity of the MOF,\u201d said Gumyusenge, the paper\u2019s senior author.<\/p>\n

During the development of the sensors, the team had to deal with some challenges including the fact that MOF materials readily become soaked with gases, and then can no longer detect and quantify new inputs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what you want. You want to be able to detect and reuse. So, we decided to use a polymer composite to achieve this reversibility,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

The team used a class of conductive polymers that Gumyusenge and his co-workers had previously shown can respond to gases without permanently binding to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe polymer, even though it doesn\u2019t have the high surface area that the MOFs do, will at least provide this recognise-and-release type of phenomenon,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

They combined the polymers in a liquid solution along with the MOF material in powdered form and deposited the mixture on a substrate, where they dried into a uniform, thin coating.<\/p>\n

By combining the polymer, with its quick detection capability, and the more sensitive MOFs, in a one-to-one ratio, he said, \u201cSuddenly we get a sensor that has both the high sensitivity we get from the MOF and the reversibility that is enabled by the presence of the polymer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The material changes its electrical resistance when molecules of the gas are temporarily trapped in the material. These changes in resistance can be continuously monitored by simply attaching an ohmmeter to track the resistance over time.<\/p>\n

Gumyusenge and his students demonstrated the composite material\u2019s ability to detect nitrogen dioxide, a toxic gas produced by many kinds of combustion, in a small lab-scale device. After 100 cycles of detection, the material was still maintaining its baseline performance within a margin of about 5 to 10 per cent, demonstrating its long-term use potential.<\/p>\n

In addition, the material has far greater sensitivity than most presently used detectors for nitrogen dioxide, the team reports. This gas is often detected after the use of stove ovens.<\/p>\n

And, with this gas recently linked to many asthma cases in the U.S., reliable detection in low concentrations is important. The team demonstrated that this new composite could detect, reversibly, the gas at concentrations as low as two parts per million.<\/p>\n

While their demonstration was specifically aimed at nitrogen dioxide, Gumyusenge said, \u201cWe can definitely tailor the chemistry to target other volatile molecules,\u201d as long as they are small polar analytes, \u201cwhich tend to be most of the toxic gases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Besides being compatible with a simple hand-held detector or a smoke-alarm type of device, one advantage of the material is that the polymer allows it to be deposited as an extremely thin uniform film, unlike regular MOFs, which are generally in an inefficient powder form.<\/p>\n

Because the films are so thin, there is little material needed and production material costs could be low; the processing methods could be typical of those used for industrial coating processes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, maybe the limiting factor will be scaling up the synthesis of the polymers, which we\u2019ve been synthesising in small amounts,\u201d Gumyusenge said. \u201cThe next steps will be to evaluate these in real-life settings,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Rwandan professor Aristide Gumyusenge, have developed a detector that could provide continuous monitoring for the presence of toxic gases at home or in industrial settings, at a low cost. The new system combines two existing technologies, bringing them together in a way that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":73609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,15],"tags":[760,763,5792,5790,5791,758,1358,666,5793],"class_list":["post-73611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-high-tech-detectors","tag-metal-organic-framework","tag-mit","tag-rwanda","tag-scientists","tag-technology","tag-toxic-gases"],"yoast_head":"\nRwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Rwandan professor Aristide Gumyusenge, have developed ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Rwandan professor Aristide Gumyusenge, have developed ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-21T14:51:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-21T15:16:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-21T14:51:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-21T15:16:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors\"},\"wordCount\":745,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"High-tech Detectors\",\"Metal-Organic Framework\",\"MIT\",\"Rwanda\",\"Scientists\",\"technology\",\"Toxic Gases\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors\",\"name\":\"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-21T14:51:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-21T15:16:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Rwandan professor Aristide Gumyusenge, have developed ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":666,\"caption\":\"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors - Rwanda","description":"Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Rwandan professor Aristide Gumyusenge, have developed ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors","og_description":"Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Rwandan professor Aristide Gumyusenge, have developed ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2024-05-21T14:51:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-21T15:16:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":666,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors","datePublished":"2024-05-21T14:51:02+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-21T15:16:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors"},"wordCount":745,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Rwanda","High-tech Detectors","Metal-Organic Framework","MIT","Rwanda","Scientists","technology","Toxic Gases"],"articleSection":["all news","Economy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors","name":"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg","datePublished":"2024-05-21T14:51:02+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-21T15:16:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Rwandan professor Aristide Gumyusenge, have developed ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/05\/sm_1716291847.974709.jpg","width":1000,"height":666,"caption":"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/economy\/rwandan-scientist-leads-mit-team-in-creating-high-tech-toxic-gas-detectors#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Rwandan scientist leads MIT team in creating high-tech toxic gas detectors"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}