Chemical and Gas Sensors Based on Printed Photopolymers: Sorption, Selectivity, Transduction and Regeneration

Printed photopolymers can serve as structural supports, sorptive matrices, diffusion barriers or active composites in chemical and gas sensors. Sensor output may arise from resistance, capacitance, optical response, mass change or swelling, but all routes begin with analyte transport and partitioning into an active region. High apparent sensitivity can therefore be caused by slow accumulation, humidity interference or irreversible swelling rather than selective transduction. Qualification links concentration, exposure time and environmental state to both analyte uptake and output. Response and recovery time, sensitivity, limit of quantification, cross-sensitivity, baseline drift and regeneration efficiency define the usable sensor state. The engineering outcome is a qualified analyte range, an interference envelope and a regeneration or replacement rule. ER-379.