A Wearable Electrochemical Gas Sensor for Ammonia Detection

Sensors

Domenica Tonelli¹  Isacco Gualandi¹  Martina Serafini¹  Erika Scavetta¹  Federica Mariani¹  Beatrice Fraboni²  Francesco Decataldo²  Luca Possanzini²  Marta Tessarolo² 

[1] Dipartimento di Chimica Industriale “Toso Montanari”, Università di Bologna, Viale del Risorgimento 4, 40136 Bologna, Italy;Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 6/2, 40127 Bologna, Italy;

关键词: wearable sensor;    electrochemical gating;    gas sensor;    ammonia detection;    PEDOT:PSS;   

DOI  :  10.3390/s21237905

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The next future strategies for improved occupational safety and health management could largely benefit from wearable and Internet of Things technologies, enabling the real-time monitoring of health-related and environmental information to the wearer, to emergency responders, and to inspectors. The aim of this study is the development of a wearable gas sensor for the detection of NH₃ at room temperature based on the organic semiconductor poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT), electrochemically deposited iridium oxide particles, and a hydrogel film. The hydrogel composition was finely optimised to obtain self-healing properties, as well as the desired porosity, adhesion to the substrate, and stability in humidity variations. Its chemical structure and morphology were characterised by infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy, respectively, and were found to play a key role in the transduction process and in the achievement of a reversible and selective response. The sensing properties rely on a potentiometric-like mechanism that significantly differs from most of the state-of-the-art NH₃ gas sensors and provides superior robustness to the final device. Thanks to the reliability of the analytical response, the simple two-terminal configuration and the low power consumption, the PEDOT:PSS/IrOx Ps/hydrogel sensor was realised on a flexible plastic foil and successfully tested in a wearable configuration with wireless connectivity to a smartphone. The wearable sensor showed stability to mechanical deformations and good analytical performances, with a sensitivity of 60 ± 8 μA decade⁻¹ in a wide concentration range (17–7899 ppm), which includes the safety limits set by law for NH₃ exposure.

【 授权许可】

Unknown