Imagine walking into your kitchen and instantly knowing if the fish you bought yesterday is still fresh—or entering an industrial site with sensors that immediately alert you to hazardous gas leaks. This isn’t science fiction—it’s the promise behind our newly developed nanomechanical sensor array, a powerful tool we’ve created to detect and analyze complex gases in real-time.
In our recent study published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering, we introduce a miniaturized array of silicon and polymer-based sensors capable of detecting various gases quickly and accurately.
This array utilizes a simple yet ingenious principle: when gas molecules enter the sensor, they diffuse into specific polymers, causing them to swell slightly. This swelling generates mechanical stress detected by tiny piezoresistive sensors embedded in silicon. It’s like watching a sponge expand as it absorbs water—but at a microscopic scale, with the expansion measured electrically to detect and identify gases.