On-Chip Gas Sensing and Applications
A Special Issue of Micromachines (ISSN 2072-666X) belonging to the section "C：Chemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2026 | Viewed by 312
Editors
Interests: lab on a chip; infrared laser spectroscopy; optical sensors for light–matter interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Gas sensing technologies are essential for environmental monitoring, industrial process control, medical diagnostics, homeland security, and smart infrastructure. Conventional gas detection systems, while highly sensitive, are often bulky, power-intensive, and unsuitable for portable or distributed sensing applications. Recent advances in integrated photonics, nanofabrication, and functional materials have enabled the development of on-chip optical gas sensors, offering compact size, low power consumption, high sensitivity, and real-time detection capabilities. These miniaturized platforms leverage optical spectroscopy, evanescent field interactions, plasmonic enhancement, and photonic integrated circuits (PICs) to achieve selective and scalable gas detection.
This Special Issue will present recent advances in the design, fabrication, integration, and application of on-chip gas sensors. Its scope includes fundamental studies, device-level innovations, system integration strategies, and application-driven demonstrations that advance sensitivity, selectivity, stability, miniaturization, and scalability. This aligns closely with the journal’s focus on advanced sensing technologies, photonic devices, and integrated systems. Our goal is to compile a focused yet comprehensive collection of at least ten high-quality contributions that highlight emerging trends and practical implementations in this rapidly developing field.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and review papers are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Integrated photonic platforms for gas sensing;
- Silicon photonics and CMOS-compatible gas sensors;
- Mid-infrared and near-infrared on-chip spectroscopy;
- Plasmonic and nanophotonic enhancement techniques;
- Functional materials and surface engineering for selective detection;
- Evanescent-field and waveguide-based sensing mechanisms;
- Lab-on-chip and microfluidic integration;
- On-chip light sources and photodetectors;
- Multiplexed and multi-gas detection systems;
- Signal processing, calibration, and machine learning for gas sensing;
- System-level integration and portable sensing platforms;
- Reliability, packaging, and real-world deployment studies.
We look forward to receiving your contributions and to assembling a high-impact collection that advances the state of the art in on-chip optical gas sensing technologies.
Dr. Kaiyuan Zheng
Dr. Haihong Bao
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- on-chip optical sensors
- integrated photonics
- gas sensing
- silicon photonics
- mid-infrared spectroscopy
- plasmonics
- nanophotonics
- photonic integrated circuits
- lab-on-chip
- miniaturized sensors
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