DEVELOPMENT OF A RELIABLE REAL-TIME FREON DETECTOR

IN ORDER TO PREVENT INJURY OR DEATH RESULTING FROM OXYGEN DEPRIVATION CAUSED BY THE RELEASE OF HIGH CONCENTRATIONS OF FREON GASES IN INDOOR ENVIRONMENTS, A SIMPLE, COMPACT, RELIABLE FREON MONITORING DEVICE IS PROPOSED. THE ELECTRON-CAPTURE DETECTOR WILL BE USED AS THE FREONSENSING ELEMENT IN THE MONITOR BECAUSE OF ITS PROVEN SENSITIVITY AND SELECTIVITY TO FREONS. THE PROPOSED INSTRUMENT, WHICH OPERATES ON THE PRINCIPLE OF MOLECULAR DIFFUSION, WILL HAVE THE CAPABILITY TO SERVE AS BOTH AN AREA MONITOR AND A PERSONAL MONITOR. THE DIFFUSION INSTRUMENT WILL UNDERGO THOROUGH LABORATORY EVALUATION BY TESTING DIFFERENT COMPONENTS OF THE ELECTRON-CAPTURE DETECTOR TO DETERMINE WHICH CONFIGURATION YIELDS THE BEST OVERALL ACCURACY, PRECISION AND RESPONSE TIME. THREE ALTERNATIVE DESIGNS FOR THE FREON INSTRUMENT ARE ALSO PROPOSED IN THE EVENT THAT THE DIFFUSION INSTRUMENT PROVES TO BE UNACCEPTABLE. THE FREON INSTRUMENT WILL BE DESIGNED TO BE COMPACT, ROBUST, SIMPLE TO OPERATE AND CALIBRATE, LOW IN POWER REQUIREMENT, EQUIPPED WITH A WARNING SYSTEM TO NOTIFY PERSONNEL OF DANGEROUS FREON CONCENTRATIONS WITHIN TWO SECONDS, AND COMPATIBLE WITH A SHIPBOARD FIBER OPTIC NETWORK.