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Type of Document Thesis Author Woodard, Yoshino Nashira URN etd-04102006-233726 Title Polypyrrole as a Smart Material for Phosphate Contaminate Detection in Water Degree Master of Science Department Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Department of Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title Yaw A. Owusu Committee Chair Peter Kalu Committee Member Reginald Parker Committee Member Keywords
- Polypyrrole
- Water Detection
- Sensors
- Smart Material
- sMart Sensor
- Phosphate
- Calcium Acetate
Date of Defense 2006-03-17 Availability unrestricted Abstract Polypyrrole is a conductive polymer that has the potential to be used in many systems where conductivity can be studied. Polypyrrole when combined with a catalyst such as calcium acetate maybe able to provide a method of detecting phosphate in water systems. The hypothesis of this research explores the concept that a polypyrrole sensor could be manufactured via a casting method to produce a sensor that detects phosphates in water. Varying three primary factors produced a designed experiment and ANOVA analysis and comparison of means for three response variables: voltage, resistance and conductivity (calculated). Careful attention was paid to the values of the response variables across the geometry of the sensor prototypes. The sensor was evaluated for accuracy, sensitivity after multiple uses, and selectivity. After examining all of the data, the information obtained did not disprove the hypothesis, however it pointed to calcium acetate as the most powerful factor in the polypyrrole sensor in the accuracy test. Sensitivity and Selectivity tests had mixed findings. The samples not containing calcium acetate near the surface did not produce great changes in the response variables. The work presented in this thesis is an analysis of the raw data and materials used for generating the polypyrrole sensor prototype in order to introduce a new concept for manufacturing sensors using advanced materials; namely smart structures as sensors.Files
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