Identification of the Safe Variation Limits for the Optimization of the Measurements in Low-Cost Electrochemical Air Quality Sensors

Abstract

Nowadays, the study of air quality has become an increasingly prominent field of research, particularly in large urban centers, given its significant impact on human health. In many countries, government departments and research centers use official high-cost scientific instruments to monitor air quality in their regions. Meanwhile, concerned citizens interested in studying the air quality of their local areas often employ low-cost air quality sensors for monitoring purposes. The optimization and evaluation of low-cost sensors have been a field of research by many research groups. This paper presents an extensive study to identify the safe percentage change limits that low-cost electrochemical air quality sensors can have, in order to optimize their measurements. For this work, three low-cost air quality monitoring stations were used, which include an electrochemical sensor for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) (Alphasense NO2-B43F) and an electrochemical sensor for ozone (O3) (Alphasense OX-B431). The aim of this work is to explore the variance of the aforementioned sensors and how this variability can be used to optimize the measurements of low-cost electrochemical sensors, closer to real ones. The analysis is conducted by employing diagrams, boxplot and violin curves of the groups of sensors used, with satisfactory results.