Abstract
Conductometric sensors have been fabricated by applying imprinted polymers as receptors for monitoring engine oil quality. Titania and silica layers are synthesized via the sol-gel technique and used as recognition materials for acidic components present in used lubricating oil. Thin-film gold electrodes forming an interdigitated structure are used as transducers to measure the conductance of polymer coatings. Optimization of layer composition is carried out by varying the precursors, e.g., dimethylaminopropyltrimethoxysilane (DMAPTMS), and aminopropyl-triethoxysilane (APTES). Characterization of these sensitive materials is performed by testing against oil oxidation products, e.g., carbonic acids. The results depict that imprinted aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) polymer is a promising candidate for detecting the age of used lubricating oil. In the next strategy, polyurethane-nanotubes composite as sensitive material is synthesized, producing appreciable differentiation pattern between fresh and used oils at elevated temperature with enhanced sensitivity.
Highlights
Internal combustion engines in automobiles and other vehicles can only perform efficiently if there is proper lubrication between moving parts
As the sensitivity of the conductometric sensor depends on the polymer layer which is coated on the interdigital electrodes, in order to investigate the influence of layer components, two imprinted polymer layers from silicon alkoxide are synthesized by the sol-gel process containing different amino groups, whereas the third sensitive layer is produced from tetrabutoxyorthotitanate
Interdigital electrode structures are used as transducers and combined with imprinted polymers to design a conductometric sensor for monitoring the age of used lubricating oil
Summary
Internal combustion engines in automobiles and other vehicles can only perform efficiently if there is proper lubrication between moving parts. A variety of sensor devices have been proposed to monitor the degradation based on different parameters such as viscosity [3], conductivity [4], and acidity [5]. Further improvements were carried out by introducing molecular recognition properties in sensitive layers to determine the chemical quality of engine oil in gas or liquid phase by employing mass sensitive transducers [6,7,8]. We have templated the polymer layer with carbonic acid and coated it on an interdigital transducer, which proves to be very successful for measuring engine oil chemical quality. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes are loaded on polyurethane as conductive filler to synthesize a sensitive layer for monitoring the age of lubricating oils
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