Researchers at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology have developed a sensor technology that can detect ethylene during the food storage and distribution phases to measure quality.
Jung Young-kyu, the chief researcher at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology's Functional Materials and Components Research Group, noted on the 25th that the research team developed an “ethylene detection sensor (Ni₅–ZnO sensor).”
Ethylene is a hormone that occurs naturally during plant growth, and when its concentration exceeds 0.1 ppm, it accelerates the ripening of fruits and vegetables, leading to a decline in quality. Currently available ethylene sensors use electrochemical or gas chromatography (GC) methods, which are bulky and expensive, making them not widely used. There are also semiconductor sensors, but they are not suitable for long-term use and are not appropriate for ethylene detection.
The research team applied a technology to uniformly elute nickel (Ni) nanoparticles onto the surface of zinc oxide (ZnO) sensor materials to solve this problem. The catalyst elution method is a technology that draws specific metal elements from within the sensor material and creates them into ultrafine nanoparticles, with the eluted nickel nanoparticles evenly distributed on the zinc oxide sensor through strong bonding, allowing it to detect only ethylene for long periods.
Experimental results showed that the sensor developed by the research team detected ultra-low concentrations of ethylene below 1 ppm without performance degradation, even during a 30-day long-term test. The developed sensor is expected to operate stably in environments with relative humidity above 80% without a decrease in sensitivity, making it highly applicable in storage and distribution sites.
Jung Young-kyu, the chief researcher, said, “We developed a semiconductor sensor that can accurately and stably detect ethylene gas, which was difficult to detect for long periods, and the production cost is low, making it immediately applicable in real-world settings.” The Korea Institute of Industrial Technology plans to advance commercialization research in collaboration with the Korea Food Research Institute to distribute ethylene sensors.
References
Journal of Materials Chemistry A (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D4TA06829G