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Individual optical multi-gas sensors as next generation second-order unobtrusive and continuous operation analytical instruments

Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Simple, single-output (zero-order) gas sensors have established applications for industrial and residential safety. However, in detection of low levels of analyte gases in diverse chemical backgrounds, zero-order gas sensors often have poor performance, cancelling out their small size and low-cost advantages over traditional analytical instruments. Thus, gas sensors with one and two independent variables (first- and second-order sensors) are under development to meet contemporary gas monitoring needs for environmental, industrial, medical, and homeland security applications. Here, we show three designs of photonic nanostructured sensors as second-order analytical instruments. In all three designs, the first independent variable in sensor response is optical wavelength across the visible spectral range. The second independent variable is either (i) illumination angle, (ii) light polarization, or (iii) operation temperature of the sensor. These illustrative designs of second-order gas sensors bring mathematical understanding to boost the multi-gas resolution achieved by individual material-based sensors through the transducer, material design, appropriate excitation conditions, and data analytics. Results presented in this report should inspire new fundamental research and technological innovations in the areas of gas sensors, optics, materials science, nanofabrication, and data analytics. The strategic approach of expanding the dimensionality of sensor response described in this study will enable next generation sensors to perform on par with traditional orthogonal-output analytical instruments, but with a continuous real-time data stream and unobtrusive, energy-efficient designs.
DOI: 10.1007/s00604-025-07294-8
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4412175994
FWCI: 0.587
Cites: 136
Cited by: 3
Related to: 10