Irish teams produce wearable gas warning system
6 Feb 2025
Joint research teams from two leading Irish universities have developed a wearable technology to alert the presence of hazardous gas.
Despite improvements in sensor instrumentation, most products have been expensive and not adapted for use in the field to measure harmful gases such as nitrogen dioxide (NO2).
Scientists from the Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices (CRANN) and the Centre for Advanced Material and BioEngineering Research (AMBER), based at University College Cork chemistry school and Trinity College Dublin physics school, collaborated to develop a wearable NO2 tester.
Deputy Director of Cork chemistry school and AMBER researcher professor Justin Holmes said: "At AMBER, we are actively developing 2D material networks on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates.
“Through multidisciplinary collaboration, we aim to leverage their flexibility, affordability, and transparency to enhance wearable technologies for real-time air quality monitoring and advanced sensing in smartwatches, clothing, and beyond.”
The researchers pointed out that recent wildfires in the United States, Croatia, Portugal, Greece, Spain, Italy, and Algeria in 2023 damaged the natural environment but also housing, commercial and industrial units, and vehicles.
They said the cases highlighted the growing need for low-cost scalable technology, such as air monitors for individuals.
Trinity College Dublin’s researchers were led by Jonathan Coleman, Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. Other contributions included Leonidas Tsetseris of National Technical University of Athens and Zden?k Sofer of University of Chemistry and Technology Prague.
