Recent Advances in Chemical Sensors for Soil Analysis: A Review

The continuously rising interest in chemical sensors’ applications in environmental monitoring, for soil analysis in particular, is owed to the sufficient sensitivity and selectivity of these analytical devices, their low costs, their simple measurement setups, and the possibility to perform online and in-field analyses with them. In this review the recent advances in chemical sensors for soil analysis are summarized. The working principles of chemical sensors involved in soil analysis; their benefits and drawbacks; and select applications of both the single selective sensors and multisensor systems for assessments of main plant nutrition components, pollutants, and other important soil parameters (pH, moisture content, salinity, exhaled gases, etc.) of the past two decades with a focus on the last 5 years (from 2017 to 2021) are overviewed.

A Lab-on-a-Chip Based Automatic Platform for Continuous Nitrites Sensing in Aquaculture

In aquaculture, the density of fish stock, use of feeding, and surrounding environmental conditions can easily result in an excessive concentration of harmful compounds that require continuous monitoring. Chemical sensors are available for most of these compounds, however, operative conditions and continuous monitoring in water make the development of sensors suitable for long and unattended deployments difficult. A possible solution is the development of engineered automatic labs where the uptake of sample and the contact with water is reduced and the use of a minimal quantity of reagents enables the implementation of reliable chemical assays. In this paper, a platform for automatic chemical assays is presented. The concept is demonstrated with the detection of nitrites based on the well-known colorimetric Griess reaction. The platform is centered around a lab-on-a-chip where reagents and water samples are mixed. The color of the reaction product is measured with low-cost optoelectronic components. Results show the feasibility of the approach with a minimum detectable concentration of about 0.1 mg/L which is below the tolerance level for aquaculture farms.

Application progress of magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer chemical sensors in the detection of biomarkers

Specific recognition and highly sensitive detection of biomarkers play an essential role in identifying, early diagnosis and prevention of many diseases. Magnetic molecularly imprinted polymers (MMIP) have been widely used...

Heavy Atom Oriented Orbital Angular Momentum Manipulation in Metal-Free Organic Phosphors

Metal-free purely organic phosphors (POPs) are emerging materials for display technologies, solid-state lighting, and chemical sensors. However, due to limitations in contemporary design strategies, the intrinsic spin-orbit coupling (SOC) efficiency...

Molecularly imprinted nanocomposites of CsPbBr3 nanocrystals: An approach towards fast and selective gas sensor of explosive taggants

Chemical sensors based on metal halide perovskites have recently attracted tremendous interest because of their excellent photophysical properties. In this work, we report the synthesis of a solid-state luminescent gas...

One-Dimensional Metal Oxide Nanostructures for Chemical Sensors

The fabrication of chemical sensors based on one-dimensional (1D) metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) nanostructures with tailored geometries has rapidly advanced in the last two decades. Chemical sensitive 1D MOS nanostructures are usually configured as resistors whose conduction is altered by a charge-transfer process or as field-effect transistors (FET) whose properties are controlled by applying appropriate potentials to the gate. This chapter reviews the state-of-the-art research on chemical sensors based on 1D MOS nanostructures of the resistive and FET types. The chapter begins with a survey of the MOS and their 1D nanostructures with the greatest potential for use in the next generation of chemical sensors, which will be of very small size, low-power consumption, low-cost, and superior sensing performance compared to present chemical sensors on the market. There follows a description of the 1D MOS nanostructures, including composite and hybrid structures, and their synthesis techniques. And subsequently a presentation of the architectures of the current resistive and FET sensors, and the methods to integrate the 1D MOS nanostructures into them on a large scale and in a cost-effective manner. The chapter concludes with an outlook of the challenges facing the chemical sensors based on 1D MOS nanostructures if their massive use in sensor networks becomes a reality.

Detection of Contaminants in Hydrogen Fuel for Fuel Cell Electrical Vehicles with Sensors—Available Technology, Testing Protocols and Implementation Challenges

Europe’s low-carbon energy policy favors a greater use of fuel cells and technologies based on hydrogen used as a fuel. Hydrogen delivered at the hydrogen refueling station must be compliant with requirements stated in different standards. Currently, the quality control process is performed by offline analysis of the hydrogen fuel. It is, however, beneficial to continuously monitor at least some of the contaminants onsite using chemical sensors. For hydrogen quality control with regard to contaminants, high sensitivity, integration parameters, and low cost are the most important requirements. In this study, we have reviewed the existing sensor technologies to detect contaminants in hydrogen, then discussed the implementation of sensors at a hydrogen refueling stations, described the state-of-art in protocols to perform assessment of these sensor technologies, and, finally, identified the gaps and needs in these areas. It was clear that sensors are not yet commercially available for all gaseous contaminants mentioned in ISO14687:2019. The development of standardized testing protocols is required to go hand in hand with the development of chemical sensors for this application following a similar approach to the one undertaken for air sensors.