Towards a fully printed electrochemical NO2 sensor on a flexible substrate using ionic liquid based polymer electrolyte

Abstract

An electrochemical amperometric nitrogen dioxide sensor with solid polymer electrolyte was fabricated by means of screen printing technology on both rigid and flexible substrates. The sensor concept is based on a semi-planar, three-electrode topology that enables low power, high performance, thin, and selective gas sensors to be produced on poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) and/or Kapton foil. The sensor response mechanism, i.e. the reduction of nitrogen dioxide at the boundary of a solid polymer electrolyte/working electrode/gas analyte, was predicted by using a Langmuir adsorption isotherm. It was demonstrated that a new platform for the electrochemical NO2 sensor can be completely manufactured by screen printing, which allows the fabrication of a flexible and low cost device suitable for mass production. Further, it was demonstrated that the fully printed sensor can be fabricated without using metal-based printing pastes, which is important from the point of view of the environment. The fully-printed, metal-free electrochemical sensor exhibited a linear response in the range of 0–10ppm, fast response/recovery times (70/60s, respectively), a resolution of 0.2ppm, and a sensitivity of 590nA/ppm, which enables the sensor to be used for both the monitoring of NO2 exposure in the workplace as well as environmental air pollution.