Abstract
Ammonia is an essential key compound in the chemical industry. However, excessively high ammonia concentrations can be harmful to the environment. Sensors for the detection of ammonia are therefore particularly important for environmental analysis. In this article, a novel hydrogel-based piezoresistive ammonia sensor is presented. In aqueous solution, ammonia reacts as a base. This alkaline pH change can be detected with stimuli-sensitive hydrogels. For such an application, highly sensitive hydrogels in the alkaline range with sufficient mechanical stability for the sensor application has to be developed. These conditions are fulfilled by the presented hydrogel system based on acrylic acid (AAc) and 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA). The hydrogel composition has a significant influence on the swelling behavior of the gel. Furthermore, the hydrogel swelling in ammonia solutions was tested and a detection limit in the range of 1 mmol/L ammonia depending on the buffer solution was determined. Ammonia-sensitive hydrogels can be used multiple times due to the repeatable swelling of the gel over several swelling cycles. To generate a measurable output voltage, the swelling pressure of ammonia-sensitive hydrogels were detected by using piezoresistive pressure sensors. All results of the free hydrogel swelling were verified in the sensor application. This low-cost ammonia sensor with a high sensitivity could be interesting for industrial chemical and biotechnological applications.
Highlights
Ammonia (NH3 ) is one of the most important inorganic compounds in chemical manufacturing.In 2011, 140 megatons of ammonia were produced worldwide based on the Haber–Bosch process [1].Ammonia is one of the key compounds for the production of fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, dyes or explosive materials [2]
We present a pH-sensitive hydrogel based on acrylic acid (AAc) [16,17,18] and 2-(dimethylamino)ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) [19,20,21], which fulfills all conditions for the detection of ammonia in a piezoresistive pressure sensor
After the swelling of hydrogels, the the hydrogel was determined determined as a function function of of the the ammonia ammonia concentration concentration in in an an isotonic isotonic saline saline was as a in PBS
Summary
Ammonia (NH3 ) is one of the most important inorganic compounds in chemical manufacturing.In 2011, 140 megatons of ammonia were produced worldwide based on the Haber–Bosch process [1].Ammonia is one of the key compounds for the production of fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, dyes or explosive materials [2]. Ammonia (NH3 ) is one of the most important inorganic compounds in chemical manufacturing. In 2011, 140 megatons of ammonia were produced worldwide based on the Haber–Bosch process [1]. Ammonia is one of the key compounds for the production of fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, dyes or explosive materials [2]. Excessively high ammonia concentrations can be a serious health threat [3]. It is necessary to monitor ammonia as part of the ambient conditions in environmental analytics [4] or to measure the atmospheric pollution from automobiles [5]. Ammonia can be used as an indicator for diseases like stomach ulcers due to bacterial infections [6]
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