Gravure-printed ammonia sensor based on organic polyaniline colloids

A chemoresistive ammonia sensor with sensitive polyaniline layer has been fabricated by gravure printing on flexible poly(ethylene terephthalate) substrate. Novel colloids of polyaniline hydrochloride, which were synthetized in xylene or chloroform in the presence of surfactant, were used as a printing formulation. The sensor characteristics of the colloid-based sensitive layers were compared with in-situ polymerized layers of polyaniline. The colloid-based sensors showed a good response to ammonia concentrations in the range from hundreds of ppb to tens of ppm. This provides an opportunity to use these sensors for both monitoring of maximum exposure limits for humans in workplaces as well as environmental air-pollution. Therefore, these fully printed, metal-free, low cost and flexible ammonia sensors based on organic materials can be used in detection systems for monitoring of hazardous gases. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.