ATEX & hazardous areas
operators who are facing increasingly tighter reporting regulations to ensure compliance. Regardless of the CP system employed, it needs to be intrinsically safe. This is why alarm condition alerts are one of the most important aspects of remote monitoring. Where before engineers were relying on manual inspections to pick up faults, they can now receive alarm condition alerts via SMS or email 24/7. Ultimately, this provides reassurance and allows time-critical issues to be resolved quickly and safely.
Omniflex UK
www.omniflex.com
A WEARABLE SENSOR THAT DETECTS AMMONIA GAS
A
mmonia (NH3)—the second-most- produced chemical globally—has
proven to be highly important in
furthering human civilisation over the centuries, both in terms of technological capabilities and innovation potential. It is widely utilised in fertilisers, refrigerants, biomarkers, and
next-generation fuel. Unfortunately, NH3 is highly toxic, resulting in complications such as respiratory irritation, chest pain, pulmonary edema, and even death. This makes effective
and rapid NH3 sensing and detection capabilities indispensable in industries or
environments prone to NH3 leaks. Over the decades, scientists have developed
innovative portable and wearable NH3 sensors, including chemiresistive sensors based on conductive polymers or metal oxide semiconductors and colorimetric sensors based on state-of-the-art gas sensing technology. While chemiresistive gas sensors have short response times, they demonstrate subpar stability and selectivity. On the other hand, colorimetric gas sensors are highly resistant to humidity and other environmental factors, but show long recovery times. This trend suggests that a dual-mode detection system that integrates the above two technologies can be
highly promising for NH3 sensing. In a new study, making significant advances in this direction, a team of researchers led by Professor Hyun Il Kang from the Department of Electrical Engineering at Hanbat National University, has proposed a
robust, stretchable wearable NH3 sensor that combines quantitative chemiresistive detection with instant visual colorimetric readout in a highly gas-permeable polymer nanofiber platform, delivering ppm-level sensitivity and stable performance under humidity and mechanical deformation.
Prof. Kang explains the operational mechanism of their next-generation technology:
Instrumentation Monthly June 2026
“Our device provides flexibility and facilitates
efficient transport of NH3 between the bromocresol-green-based colorimetric and poly(3,4-ethylene dioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate)-based chemiresistive sensing layers. This innovative dual-mode design enables reliable NH3 detection.”
Notably, the NH3-detection performance of an individual layer is on par with that of the dual-mode gas-sensing platform. As a result, the platform remains accurate even if one of the two sensing modes fails. Moreover, the sensor remarkably exhibits efficient operation even when attached to human skin and in humid conditions. Its potential real-life applications include: personal safety monitoring for
workers in NH3-handling facilities, industrial refrigeration and cold-chain environments, agriculture and livestock operations where ammonia buildup occurs, noninvasive health
screening via breath-NH3, as well as vehicle energy systems using NH3.
In the next five to ten years, this kind of dual-
mode, skin-mountable NH3 sensing could enable everyday “smart PPE” that gives early, intuitive leak warnings and remains reliable in humid, real-world conditions, reducing workplace injuries and deaths from ammonia exposure. “Furthermore, in the long term, the same platform approach could also support continuous environmental monitoring and noninvasive health screening applications where ammonia is a useful biomarker, improving safety and preventive care,” adds Prof. Kang. Overall, the present research lays out an innovative sensor engineering paradigm, establishing a robust, selective, and
reproducible NH3 sensor for a wide variety of biomedical, environmental monitoring, and futuristic industrial applications.
Hanbat National University
www.hanbat.ac.kr/eng/
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