# Project 3 - Development and Field Application of Novel Ultrasensitive Devices for the Measurement of Airborne VOCs

> **NIH NIH P42** · UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE · 2024 · $367,844

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY (Project 3) 
This proposed work is to advance airborne volatile organic compound (VOC) detection and quantification 
technologies, and to robustly characterize indoor/outdoor contrast and in-home determinants for exposures to 
target Superfund-relevant VOCs. This research will continue to grow and expand two VOC real-time in situ 
measurement platforms developed by the University of Louisville Superfund Research Center established in 
2017. One platform comprises small, low-cost sensors that can be deployed alone or in networks. Novel gas 
sensors and sensor arrays are being developed to measure target Superfund-relevant VOCs including acrolein, 
trichloroethene (TCE), benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene (BTEX). The devices use novel surface 
chemistries to address the common challenges of selectivity and sensitivity and are fabricated using 
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. Another platform addresses the need for flexibly 
designed, field-deployable instruments that can measure with high sensitivity a large range of compounds to 
interrogate microenvironments with complex VOC mixtures. The Multichannel Organics In-situ enviRonmental 
Analyzer (MOIRA) instrument, developed in the first cycle of Center funding for mobile monitoring, will be 
expanded and optimized for indoor/outdoor VOC monitoring studies. MOIRA is a gas chromatography–mass 
spectrometry (GC-MS) instrument with high time resolution (e.g., ten minutes). Its capabilities will be expanded 
to measure both higher and lower volatility compounds than can be achieved with the current design. These 
innovative, high time resolution in situ measurements will be coupled with conventional time-integrated VOC 
passive sampling to measure target Superfund-relevant VOCs at homes of some participants in the allied clinical 
study. These data will be used to build spatiotemporal models to estimate ambient VOCs at the homes of all 
clinical study participants, and to gain new insights into VOC levels and their determinants in the home 
microenvironment. In addition to exposure assessment, the two measurement platforms are responsive to 
ongoing Superfund program advancements; these innovative developments will expand future capacities to 
monitor VOC indoor vapor intrusion, monitor outdoor VOC levels during site remediation, and monitor both 
indoors and outdoors during post-remediation surveillance.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10914084
- **Project number:** 5P42ES023716-08
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE
- **Principal Investigator:** Jay Robert Turner
- **Activity code:** P42 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $367,844
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10914084

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10914084, Project 3 - Development and Field Application of Novel Ultrasensitive Devices for the Measurement of Airborne VOCs (5P42ES023716-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10914084. Licensed CC0.

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