Development of printable ammonia sensors for smart packaging application

琼斯包装有限公司（Jones）是一家创新的加拿大公司，致力于提供客户至上的综合包装解决方案。Jones一直在积极开发基于印刷电子的智能包装解决方案。目前，Jones正在寻找各种气体传感分析仪，特别是那些对储存条件敏感的食品**，如果腐败，可能会威胁到人体健康。**对于食品包装行业而言，由于不同的储存条件，食品的状况可能会有所不同，因此，包装上印刷的**固定“有效期”有时无法保证产品的安全性。食物中毒是由于食用过期或被致病菌、病毒和/或寄生虫污染的变质食物而引起的疾病。变质的食物会产生可检测的蒸汽或气体，如氨，这可以用气体传感器检测到。然而，由于这种气体传感器的成本相对较高，并且缺乏与包装的集成，客户无法从最先进的动态蒸汽监测系统中受益。因此，迫切需要利用材料科学和印刷电子技术的最新进展来开发低成本的全印刷柔性气体传感器。这个项目的目标是开发可打印的基于聚合物的氨传感材料，用于化学电阻装置。这种油墨将用于印刷和作为氨传感组件的功能。结合喷墨打印技术，将在柔性基板（如纸张）上开发高性能传感电路。**印刷电子技术是电子工业中新兴的一种先进制造技术。开发用于智能包装的新型功能性油墨配方不仅有利于工业合作伙伴，而且有利于加拿大的整个印刷电子行业。

Jones Packaging Inc. (Jones) is an innovative Canadian company dedicated to providing customer-first**integrated packaging solutions. Jones has been actively developing printed electronics based smart packaging**solutions. Currently Jones is looking for various gas sensing analyzers, in particular for those food products**that are sensitive to the storing conditions, which have the potential to threat human health if corrupted.**For food packing industry, the condition of food may vary attribute to different storing conditions, thus the**fixed "expiring date" printed on the package sometimes cannot guarantee the safety of the products. Food**poisoning is the illness resulting from consumption of corrupted food that is either expired or contaminated by**pathogenic bacteria, viruses and/or parasites. Spoiled food will create detectable vapors or gas like ammonia,**which can be detected using gas sensors. However, due to the relative high cost of such gas sensor and the lack**of integration to the packaging, customers cannot benefit from the state-of-the-art dynamic vapor monitoring**systems. Thus, it is urgent to take advantage of the recent advances in materials sciences and printed electronics**technology to develop low-cost all-printed flexible gas sensor.**The objective of this project is to develop printable polymer-based ammonia sensing materials to be used in**a chemiresistor device. Such ink will be used for printing and functioning as the ammonia sensing component.**Together with inkjet printing technology, a high-performance sensing circuit will be developed on a flexible**substrate, like paper.**Printed electronics is emerging as an advanced manufacturing technology in electronics industry.**Development of new functional ink formula for smart packaging can be beneficial for not only the industrial**partner, but also the whole printed electronics industry in Canada.