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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Design and Use of a Full Flow Sampling System FFS for the Quantification of Methane Emissions
Published on: June 12, 2016
Robust and compact light-induced thermoelastic sensor for atmospheric methane detection based on a vacuum-sealed
Zhijin Shang1, Hongpeng Wu2,3, Gang Wang2,3
1Shanxi Province Engineering Research Center of Precision Measurement and Online Detection Equipment, School of Applied Science, Taiyuan University of Science and Technology, Taiyuan 030024, PR China.
None:
A compact light-induced thermoelastic spectroscopy (LITES) instrument incorporating a subminiature quartz tuning fork (QTF) was developed for atmospheric methane (CH4) sensing. The QTF features prong dimensions of 1700 µm in length and 120 µm in width, which enable substantial thermoelastic expansion at the microscale, significantly enhancing the piezoelectric signal. The subminiature QTF was vacuum sealed to achieve a high quality factor of 20,511 and a temperature coefficient of frequency of - 0.91 ppm/℃, ensuring a high detection sensitivity and robustness for the LITES sensor. Under identical vacuum conditions, the subminiature QTF demonstrated a twofold signal enhancement compared to the standard QTF, resulting in a minimum detection limit (MDL) of 47 ppb with a 300-ms averaging time. Continuous measurements of atmospheric CH4 levels over five days were conducted to evaluate the accuracy and robustness of the developed sensor for long-duration monitoring applications.
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