NADIR is a compact size, transportable and battery powered unit for air quality control and monitoring. The system is based on a 8 QMB (Quartz Microbalances) coated with different polymer films. When a particular substance is absorbed into these films the weight of the films grows and the QMB changes his oscillation frequency. Because each film is made of a different polymer, each one reacts to each substance, or analyte, in a slightly different way. And, while the changes in frequency in a single QMB be enough to identify an analyte, the varied changes in 8 microbalances produce a distinctive, identifiable pattern, that can be distinguished by the units after performing an initial training.
On May 2011, NADIR participated to NASA Shuttle Mission STS-134 and was successfully tested on the International Space Station inside the IENOSE (Italian Electronic Nose for Space Exploration) experiment.
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