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From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science

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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2019) | Viewed by 43485

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Prof. Dr. Luigi Zeni

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1. Department of Engineering, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Via Roma 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy
2. IREA-CNR, Via Diocleziano 328, 80124 Napoli, Italy
Interests: optical fiber sensors; distributed optical fiber sensors; nano and micro sensors; biosensors and chemical sensors; integrated optics sensors and optoelectronic devices
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Prof. Dr. Aldo Minardo

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Department of Engineering, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via Roma, 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Interests: distributed optical fiber sensors; structural health monitoring; polymer optical fiber sensors
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Prof. Dr. Nunzio Cennamo

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Department of Engineering, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via Roma 29, 81031 Aversa, Italy
Interests: optical sensors; biosensors and chemical sensors; optical fiber sensors and optoelectronic devices
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue was created in collaboration with the 7^th International Symposium on Sensor Science (I3S 2019), held 9–11 May, 2019, in Naples, Italy. It comprises several topical sessions covering the main aspects of sensor science. Conference participants are cordially invited to contribute a full manuscript to this Special Issue and receive a 20% discount on the publishing fees.

Dr. Luigi Zeni
Dr. Aldo Minardo
Dr. Nunzio Cennamo
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Chemical Sensors
Biosensors
Physical Sensors
Optical Sensors
Microfluidics

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 8611 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Design of a Fully Integrated Inductive Coupling System: A Discrete Approach Towards Sensing Ventricular Pressure

by Natiely Hernández Sebastián, Noé Villa Villaseñor, Francisco-Javier Renero-Carrillo, Daniela Díaz Alonso and Wilfrido Calleja Arriaga

Sensors 2020, 20(5), 1525; https://doi.org/10.3390/s20051525 - 10 Mar 2020

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5718

Abstract

In this paper, an alternative strategy for the design of a bidirectional inductive power transfer (IPT) module, intended for the continuous monitoring of cardiac pressure, is presented. This new integrated implantable medical device (IMD) was designed including a precise ventricular pressure sensor, where the available implanting room is restricted to a 1.8 × 1.8 cm² area. This work considers a robust magnetic coupling between an external reading coil and the implantable module: a three-dimensional inductor and a touch mode capacitive pressure sensor (TMCPS) set. In this approach, the coupling modules were modelled as RCL circuits tuned at a 13.56 MHz frequency. The analytical design was validated by means of Comsol Multiphysics, CoventorWare, and ANSYS HFSS software tools. A power transmission efficiency (PTE) of 94% was achieved through a 3.5 cm-thick biological tissue, based on high magnitudes for the inductance (L) and quality factor (Q) components. A specific absorption rate (SAR) of less than 1.6 W/Kg was attained, which suggests that this IPT system can be implemented in a safe way, according to IEEE C95.1 safety guidelines. The set of inductor and capacitor integrated arrays were designed over a very thin polyimide film, where the 3D coil was 18 mm in diameter and approximately 50% reduced in size, considering any conventional counterpart. Finally, this new approach for the IMD was under development using low-cost thin film manufacturing technologies for flexible electronics. Meanwhile, as an alternative test, this novel system was fabricated using a discrete printed circuit board (PCB) approach, where preliminary electromagnetic characterization demonstrates the viability of this bidirectional IPT design. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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13 pages, 3276 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Electronic Tongue Coupled to an Electrochemical Flow Reactor for Emerging Organic Contaminants Real Time Monitoring

by Cátia Magro, Eduardo P. Mateus, Juan M. Paz-Garcia, Susana Sério, Maria Raposo and Alexandra B. Ribeiro

Sensors 2019, 19(24), 5349; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19245349 - 4 Dec 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3763

Abstract

Triclosan, which is a bacteriostatic used in household items, has raised health concerns, because it might lead to antimicrobial resistance and endocrine disorders in organisms. The detection, identification, and monitoring of triclosan and its by-products (methyl triclosan, 2,4-Dichlorophenol and 2,4,6-Trichlorophenol) are a growing need in order to update current water treatments and enable the continuous supervision of the contamination plume. This work presents a customized electronic tongue prototype coupled to an electrochemical flow reactor, which aims to access the monitoring of triclosan and its derivative by-products in a real secondary effluent. An electronic tongue device, based on impedance measurements and polyethylenimine/poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) layer-by-layer and TiO₂, ZnO and TiO₂/ZnO sputtering thin films, was developed and tested to track analyte degradation and allow for analyte detection and semi-quantification. A degradation pathway trend was observable by means of principal component analysis, being the sample separation, according to sampling time, explained by 77% the total variance in the first two components. A semi-quantitative electronic tongue was attained for triclosan and methyl-triclosan. For 2,4-Dichlorophenol and 2,4,6-Trichlorophenol, the best results were achieved with only a single sensor. Finally, working as multi-analyte quantification devices, the electronic tongues could provide information regarding the degradation kinetic and concentrations ranges in a dynamic removal treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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13 pages, 2646 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Optical Fiber Chemical Sensor for the Detection of Copper(II) in Drinking Water

by Maria Pesavento, Antonella Profumo, Daniele Merli, Lucia Cucca, Luigi Zeni and Nunzio Cennamo

Sensors 2019, 19(23), 5246; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19235246 - 28 Nov 2019

Cited by 33 | Viewed by 4977

Abstract

Highly sensitive plasmonic optical fiber platforms combined with receptors have been recently used to obtain selective sensors. A low-cost configuration can be obtained exploiting a D-shaped plastic optical fiber covered with a multilayer sensing surface. The multilayer consists of a gold film, functionalized with a specific receptor, where the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) occurs. The signal is produced by the refractive index variation occurring as a consequence of the receptor-to analyte binding. In this work, a selective sensor for copper(II) detection in drinking water, exploiting a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of d,l-penicillamine as the sensing layer, has been developed and tested. Different concentrations of copper(II) in NaCl 0.1 M solutions at different pH values and in a real matrix (drinking water) have been considered. The results show that the sensor is able to sense copper(II) at concentrations ranging from 4 × 10⁻⁶ M to 2 × 10⁻⁴ M. The use of this optical chemical sensor is a very attractive perspective for fast, in situ and low-cost detection of Cu(II) in drinking water for human health concerns. Furthermore, the possibility of remote control is feasible as well, because optical fibers are employed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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9 pages, 7059 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sensitivity Improvement of Urchin-Like ZnO Nanostructures Using Two-Dimensional Electron Gas in MgZnO/ZnO

by So-Young Bak, Jeongseok Lee, Yoojong Kim, Se-Hyeong Lee, Kyoungwan Woo, Sanghyun Lee and Moonsuk Yi

Sensors 2019, 19(23), 5195; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19235195 - 27 Nov 2019

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3707

Abstract

This paper introduces a strategy for improving the sensitivity of a gas sensor to NO₂ gas. The gas sensor was fabricated using urchin-like ZnO nanostructures grown on MgO particles via vapor-phase growth and decorated with MgZnO nanoparticles via a sol-gel process. The urchin-like ZnO gas sensor decorated with MgZnO showed higher sensitivity to NO₂ gas than a pristine urchin-like ZnO gas sensor. When ZnO and MgZnO form a heterojunction, a two-dimensional electron gas is generated. This improves the performance of the fabricated gas sensor. The growth morphology, atomic composition, and phase structure were confirmed through field-emission scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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10 pages, 3892 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Eco-Friendly Disposable Plasmonic Sensor Based on Bacterial Cellulose and Gold

by Nunzio Cennamo, Carlo Trigona, Salvatore Graziani, Luigi Zeni, Francesco Arcadio, Giovanna Di Pasquale and Antonino Pollicino

Sensors 2019, 19(22), 4894; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19224894 - 9 Nov 2019

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3228

Abstract

In several application fields, plasmonic sensor platforms combined with bio-receptors are intensively used to obtain biosensors. Most of these commercial devices are based on a disposable chip. Usually a gold chip, functionalized with a specific bio-receptor, inside a costly sensor system, is used. In this work, we propose a low-cost and small-size sensor system, used for monitoring a disposable plasmonic chip, based on an innovative optical waveguide made of bacterial cellulose (BC). In particular, we have sputtered gold on the green slab waveguide that is able to excite localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). Experimental results are presented on the capabilities of using the BC-based composite as an eco-friendly plasmonic sensor platform, which could be exploited for realizing disposable biosensors. The sensor has been used with optical fibers and simple equipment. More specifically, the fibers connect the green disposable LSPR sensor with a light source and with a spectrometer. The novel plasmonic sensing approach has been tested using two different optical waveguide configurations of BC, with and without ions inside BC. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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21 pages, 4422 KiB

Open AccessArticle

MEMS Hydrophone Signal Denoising and Baseline Drift Removal Algorithm Based on Parameter-Optimized Variational Mode Decomposition and Correlation Coefficient

by Huichao Yan, Ting Xu, Peng Wang, Linmei Zhang, Hongping Hu and Yanping Bai

Sensors 2019, 19(21), 4622; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19214622 - 24 Oct 2019

Cited by 32 | Viewed by 3975

Abstract

Underwater acoustic technology is an important means of detecting the ocean. Due to the complex influence of the marine environment, there is a lot of noise and baseline drift in the signals collected by hydrophones. In order to solve this problem, this paper proposes a denoising and baseline drift removal algorithm for MEMS vector hydrophone based on whale-optimized variational mode decomposition (VMD) and correlation coefficient (CC). Firstly, the power spectrum entropy (PSE), which reflects the variation characteristics of the signal frequency is selected as the fitness function of the whale-optimization algorithm to find the parameters (K,α) of the VMD. It is easier to find the global optimal solution of the parameters by combining the whale-optimization algorithm. Then, using the VMD algorithm after obtaining the parameters, the original signal is decomposed to obtain the intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), and calculating the correlation coefficients (CCs) between the IMFs and the original signal. Finally, the CC threshold is used to remove the noise IMFs, and the rest of the useful IMFs are reconstructed to complete the denoising and baseline drift removal process of the original signals. In the simulation experiments, the algorithm proposed in this paper shows better performance by comparing conventional digital signal-processing methods and the related algorithms proposed recently. Applied in the experiments of a MEMS hydrophone, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is also verified. This algorithm can provide new ideas for signal denoising and baseline drift removal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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12 pages, 4581 KiB

Open AccessArticle

P3HT Processing Study for In-Liquid EGOFET Biosensors: Effects of the Solvent and the Surface

by Matteo Parmeggiani, Alessio Verna, Alberto Ballesio, Matteo Cocuzza, Erik Piatti, Vittorio Fra, Candido Fabrizio Pirri and Simone Luigi Marasso

Sensors 2019, 19(20), 4497; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19204497 - 17 Oct 2019

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5181

Abstract

In-liquid biosensing is the new frontier of health and environment monitoring. A growing number of analytes and biomarkers of interest correlated to different diseases have been found, and the miniaturized devices belonging to the class of biosensors represent an accurate and cost-effective solution to obtaining their recognition. In this study, we investigate the effect of the solvent and of the substrate modification on thin films of organic semiconductor Poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) in order to improve the stability and electrical properties of an Electrolyte Gated Organic Field Effect Transistor (EGOFET) biosensor. The studied surface is the relevant interface between the P3HT and the electrolyte acting as gate dielectric for in-liquid detection of an analyte. Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) characterizations were employed to study the effect of two solvents (toluene and 1,2-dichlorobenzene) and of a commercial adhesion promoter (Ti Prime) on the morphological structure and electronic properties of P3HT film. Combining the results from these surface characterizations with electrical measurements, we investigate the changes on the EGOFET performances and stability in deionized (DI) water with an Ag/AgCl gate electrode. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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17 pages, 4722 KiB

Open AccessArticle

EKF-Based Parameter Identification of Multi-Rotor Unmanned Aerial VehiclesModels

by Rodrigo Munguía, Sarquis Urzua and Antoni Grau

Sensors 2019, 19(19), 4174; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19194174 - 26 Sep 2019

Cited by 23 | Viewed by 3822

Abstract

This work presents a method for estimating the model parameters of multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles by means of an extended Kalman filter. Different from test-bed based identification methods, the proposed approach estimates all the model parameters of a multi-rotor aerial vehicle, using a single online estimation process that integrates measurements that can be obtained directly from onboard sensors commonly available in this kind of UAV. In order to develop the proposed method, the observability property of the system is investigated by means of a nonlinear observability analysis. First, the dynamic models of three classes of multi-rotor aerial vehicles are presented. Then, in order to carry out the observability analysis, the state vector is augmented by considering the parameters to be identified as state variables with zero dynamics. From the analysis, the sets of measurements from which the model parameters can be estimated are derived. Furthermore, the necessary conditions that must be satisfied in order to obtain the observability results are given. An extensive set of computer simulations is carried out in order to validate the proposed method. According to the simulation results, it is feasible to estimate all the model parameters of a multi-rotor aerial vehicle in a single estimation process by means of an extended Kalman filter that is updated with measurements obtained directly from the onboard sensors. Furthermore, in order to better validate the proposed method, the model parameters of a custom-built quadrotor were estimated from actual flight log data. The experimental results show that the proposed method is suitable to be practically applied. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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10 pages, 3160 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Young Interferometer as an Optical System for a Variable Depolarizer Characterization

by Aleksandra Kalbarczyk, Leszek R. Jaroszewicz, Noureddine Bennis, Monika Chrusciel and Pawel Marc

Sensors 2019, 19(14), 3037; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19143037 - 10 Jul 2019

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3432

Abstract

This article proposes an interferometric method for a variable depolarizer characterization with features that distinguish it from the polarimetric system. Information about the behavior of a vertically aligned nematic cell as a variable depolarizer can be extracted from Young interferometer measurements in real [...] Read more.

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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11 pages, 4906 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Fiber-Optic Rotational Seismograph—Laboratory Tests and Field Application

by Leszek R. Jaroszewicz, Anna Kurzych, Zbigniew Krajewski, Michał Dudek, Jerzy K. Kowalski and Krzysztof P. Teisseyre

Sensors 2019, 19(12), 2699; https://doi.org/10.3390/s19122699 - 15 Jun 2019

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 3898

Abstract

The paper presents construction and laboratory tests, as well as the first field application of a new fiber-optic rotational seismograph. The system is based on a fiber-optic gyroscope (FOG), with determined Angle Random Walk of the order of 10⁻⁸ rad/Sqrt(s) and a few rad/s maximum detectable amplitude of rotation in the frequency range from direct current (DC) to 328.12 Hz. It has been designed for the rotational seismology area of interest. This work also presents exemplary relevant measurements, which were conducted using a set of two devices installed in the geophysical observatory in Książ, Poland. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Physical to Chemical Sensing: A Selection of the Best Papers Presented at the 2019 Symposium on Sensor Science)

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