Sensorial and Instrumental Approaches to Indoor Air Monitoring

The paper deals with a research about analytical techniques for meaningful, reliable, cost-effective, in-situ, real-time and continues determination of airborne chemicals, by means of a new electrochemical sensor; the research aims to develop objective instrumental sensing systems able to substitute the subjective human responses. Sensor detection capability could regard a series of analytes: carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, inorganic pollutants, ammonia and other metabolic gases, irritants, odours. The behaviour of a single analyte as well as of their mixtures, allows to obtain both specific and overall responses in chemical indoor air quality IAQ control: a procedure which employs mainly carbon dioxide concentration as oxidant and ammonia as reducing element able to evaluate Indoor Air Quality is described.