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. 2008 Jan 25;8(1):561–581. doi: 10.3390/s8010561

Table 1.

Comparison of hydrogel based pH sensors .* estimated by characteristic curves

Sensor type Data channel Transducer resolution Sensitivity per pH unit Accuracy of measurement pH working range Hydrogel Minimal response time

overall best point


Transducer signal pH unit Transducer signal pH unit Material Thickness
Refractometric sensor [46] refractive index 2.5x10−4 10−5/4x10−2 3.11x10−2 ± 3.75x10- * ± 1.64x10-3 * ± 1.1x10-4 ± 4.8x10-4 7-7.75 HEMA-DMAEMA 300 nm (dry) ∼ 80 s
Holographic sensor [58] wavelength 6x10−3 (1nm/165nm) 165 nm ± 5.3 nm * ± 0.032 * ± 3.1 nm * ± 0.019 * 5 - 7 PHEMA-co-MAA 10 μm ∼ 250 s
CCA sensor[55] (Braggdiffraction) wavelength 3,3x10−3 (1nm/300nm) 74.2 nm - - - - 4.3-8.5 PAAm-PCCA 125 μm 10 min
Conductimetric sensor [63] resistance - 100 Ω - - ± 5.2Ω ± 0.052 7 - 8 HEMA-DMAEMA 8 μm 350 s
Quartz crystalmicro balance[64] frequency damping 3.3x10−6 (0.1Hz/30kHz) 13.2 kHz 25.467 kHz ± 0.62 kHz ± 1.085 kHz ± 0.047 ± 0.042 ± 179 Hz ± 89.5 Hz ± 0.013 ± 3.5x10-3 2.55 – 3.45 PVA-PAA 390 nm (dry) 500 ms
Magnetoelastic sensor [67] frequency 2,4x10−4 0.4Hz/1.7kHz 506 Hz ± 66 Hz ± 0.13 - - 4,4 – 8,5 poly(AA-co-IOA) 1.4 μm 120 s
Microcantilever [74] deflexion 5x105 (1nm/20μm) 20.3 μm ± 1.15 μm * ± 0.057 * ± 0.3 μm * ± 0.015 * 6 - 6,8 PMAA-PEGDMA 2.2 μm few minutes
Microcantilever [75] deflexion 2,9x105 (1nm/35μm) 1000 nm ± 5 % ± 0.05 - - 6 - 9 AAm-DMAEMA 15 μm 15 min
Bending plate sensor [79] resistance 1,67x10-5 (1μV/60mV) 14.55 mV * ± 3.5 mV * ± 0.24 * ± 1.9 mV * ± 0.13 * 5.5 - 11 PVA-PAA 40 μm ∼ 12 min

HEMA:DMAEMA: 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate - N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate

PHEMA-co-MAA: poly(hydroxyethyl methacrylate-co- methacrylic acid) different acidic and basic monomers where also used

PAAm-PCCA: poly(acrylamide) - polymerised crystalline colloidal array

PVA-PAA: poly(vinyl alcohol) – poly(acrylic acid)

poly(AA-co-IOA): poly(acrylic acid-co-isooctyl acrylate)

PMAA-PEGDMA: poly (methacrylic acid)-Poly(ethylene glycol) dimethacrylate

AAm-DMAEMA: acrylamide - N,N-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate