Intramolecular force-compensated hydrogel-based sensors with reduced response times

Abstract

Abstract The method of intramolecular force compensation forms a new approach for reducing the response time of hydrogel-based chemical sensors and improving their long-term stability. The principle is based on a single bisensitive hydrogel, that fulfills both the function of a sensor and an actuator. This paper presents the measuring principle, the required bisensitive hydrogel and a sensor setup. The results show the desired bisensitivity of the sensor to the temperature and ion concentration as well as the successful reduction of the response time by more than 50 % compared to the conventional deflection method. The continuous sensor operation with the application of varying measuring solvents indicates a negligibly low hysteresis behaviour.