Recent Progress on Sensors and Smart Systems for In-Situ Gas Monitoring

A special issue of Chemosensors (ISSN 2227-9040). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Chemical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2025) | Viewed by 2990

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Department of Physics and Earth Science, University of Ferrara, Via G. Saragat 1/C, 44122 Ferrara, Italy
Interests: solid-state gas sensors; semiconducting nanostructured materials; gas sensors applications; photo-sensitivity
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The recognized impacts of air pollution on the environment and on human health  prompted extensive research to determine safe limits for the emission and exposure to known airborne hazardous substances. As a result, the number of applications needing in situ and real-time detection of a wide range of gases has increased dramatically.

The research and development of sensors and smart systems are critical for the reliable monitoring of gases, meeting the requirements of high sensitivity, precise discrimination at a variety of testing conditions, and long-term stability. The advances in this research field include the study of new functional materials, well-suited design and miniaturization of sensing devices and systems, innovative methods for activating the receptor unit, such as UV–visible light, chemometrics, and so on. Moreover, new experimental approaches, both in situ and operando, investigate the interaction between the analytes and the sensing units to uncover the mechanism of detection for the fine tuning of sensor properties for specific applications.

This Special Issue seeks original research papers as well as review articles, with an emphasis on theoretical and experimental studies regarding sensors and systems for reliable in situ and continuous gas monitoring. The themes covered include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Nanostructured 1D, 2D and 3D materials for gas sensors;
  • Metal-oxides and MOF-based gas sensors;
  • Photoactivated gas sensing materials;
  • Sensors arrays;
  • Miniaturized gas sensors and olfactory systems;
  • Simulation of gas sensing and smart systems;
  • Sensors application for IoT;
  • Chemometrics;
  • In situ and operando characterizations of gas sensors.

Dr. Barbara Fabbri
Guest Editor

Elena Spagnoli
Arianna Rossi
Guest Editor Assistants

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Keywords

  • gas sensors
  • environmental monitoring
  • electronic noses
  • air quality sensors
  • innovative gas sensing materials
  • gas sensing mechanism

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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20 pages, 8464 KiB  
Article
Influence of Different Synthesis Methods on the Defect Structure, Morphology, and UV-Assisted Ozone Sensing Properties of Zinc Oxide Nanoplates
by Pedro P. Ortega, João V. N. Palma, Ana L. Doimo, Laura Líbero, Gabriel F. Yamakawa, Leonnam G. Merízio, Ederson C. Aguiar, Luís F. Silva and Elson Longo
Chemosensors 2025, 13(4), 152; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors13040152 - 20 Apr 2025
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Abstract
In this work, room-temperature UV-assisted ozone detection was investigated using ZnO nanoplates synthesized via precipitation, ultrasound-, ultrasonic tip-, and microwave-assisted hydrothermal (MAH) methods. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of crystalline phases with an ~3.3 eV band gap, independent of the synthesis used. Raman [...] Read more.
In this work, room-temperature UV-assisted ozone detection was investigated using ZnO nanoplates synthesized via precipitation, ultrasound-, ultrasonic tip-, and microwave-assisted hydrothermal (MAH) methods. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of crystalline phases with an ~3.3 eV band gap, independent of the synthesis used. Raman spectroscopy revealed oxygen-related defects. Plate-like morphologies were observed, with the ultrasonic tip-assisted synthesis yielding ~17 nm-thick plates. Electrical measurements showed 10–170 ppb ozone sensitivity under UV. The sample synthesized via the MAH method (ZM) demonstrated superior conductance, with a baseline resistance of ~1.2% for the ultrasound (ZU) sample and less than 50% for the precipitation (ZA) and ultrasonic tip (ZP) samples. Despite the appreciable response in dark mode, the recovery was slow (>>30 min), except for the UV illumination condition, which reduced the recovery response to ~2 min. With top areas of ~0.0122 µm2, ZP and ZU showed high specific surface areas (24.75 and 19.37 m2/g, respectively), in contrast to ZM, which exhibited the lowest value (15.32 m2/g) with a top area of ~0.0332 µm2 and a thickness of 26.0 nm. The superior performance of ZM was attributed to the larger nanoplate sizes and the lower baseline resistance. The ultrasound method showed the lowest sensitivity due to the higher resistance and the depletion layer effect. The results indicate that the synthesis methods presented herein for the production of reactive ZnO nanoplates using NaOH as a growth-directing agent are reliable, simple, and cost-effective, in addition to being capable of detecting ozone with high sensitivity and reproducibility at concentrations as low as 10 ppb. Full article
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14 pages, 2938 KiB  
Article
QD/SnO2 Photoactivated Chemoresistive Sensor for Selective Detection of Primary Alcohols at Room Temperature
by Maria Yu. Skrypnik, Vadim B. Platonov, Daria A. Kurtina, Oleg G. Sinyashin, Marina N. Rumyantseva and Roman B. Vasiliev
Chemosensors 2025, 13(1), 20; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors13010020 - 16 Jan 2025
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Abstract
Sensors based on nanocomposites of quantum dots (QDs) and wide-gap metal oxides are of exceptional interest for photoactivated detection of toxic and pollutant gases without thermal heating. However, the class of detecting gases has been limited almost exclusively to oxidizing gases like NO [...] Read more.
Sensors based on nanocomposites of quantum dots (QDs) and wide-gap metal oxides are of exceptional interest for photoactivated detection of toxic and pollutant gases without thermal heating. However, the class of detecting gases has been limited almost exclusively to oxidizing gases like NO2. Here, we designed a photoactivated sensor for the selective detection of primary alcohols at room temperature using CdSe quantum dots coupled to a wide-gap SnO2 semiconductor matrix. Our concept of the sensor operations is based on the photochemical reaction of primary alcohols via photoactivated QD-SnO2 charge transfer and does not involve chemisorbed oxygen, which is traditional for the operation of metal oxide sensors. We demonstrated an efficient sensor response to C1–C4 primary alcohols of ppm concentration under photoexcitation with a yellow LED in the absence of a signal from other volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We believe that proposed sensor concept opens up new ways to design photoactivated sensors without heating for the detection of VOCs. Full article
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Review

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27 pages, 8380 KiB  
Review
Recent Progress in MOFs and MOF-Derived Materials for Gas Sensing Applications
by Khursheed Ahmad and Tae Hwan Oh
Chemosensors 2025, 13(3), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors13030100 - 9 Mar 2025
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Abstract
In the past few decades, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been widely employed for a variety of applications such as sensors, adsorption, and catalysis. MOFs have excellent gas sensing properties and a large specific surface area which makes them a suitable candidate for the [...] Read more.
In the past few decades, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have been widely employed for a variety of applications such as sensors, adsorption, and catalysis. MOFs have excellent gas sensing properties and a large specific surface area which makes them a suitable candidate for the determination of toxic and hazardous gases. Some reports have also shown that integration of MOFs with other materials such as graphene, metal oxides, or conducting polymers may further improve their sensing performance. MOF-derived materials have also demonstrated excellent gas sensing properties. In this review article, we have compiled the recent progress in MOFs, MOF-based composites, and MOF-derived materials for gas sensing applications. We believe that the present review article may benefit readers who are planning or working on the development of MOF-based gas sensors. Full article
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