Amperometric Gas Sensors: From Classical Industrial Health and Safety to Environmental Awareness and Public Health

KWJ Engineering and SPEC Sensors LLC have been working to develop and commercialize a new class of amperometric gas sensor, the screen-printed electrochemical sensor (SPEC), for the past several years. These new, tiny, ultralow power sensors and device built around them are making in-roads in a diverse set of endeavors. Much of this potential has arisen in the explosion of interest and activity in sensor technologies driven by our increasingly connected world (e.g., Internet of Things). The advent of tiny form factors like the SPEC sensor has opened up new possibilities in applications requiring portability, wearability and self-powered or long-term unattended and mobile battery operation. This paper will review several recent results in next-generation gas sensor development and environmental applications at KWJ Engineering, with a focus on air quality monitoring.