Ultra-Sensitive Ammonia Sensor

Researchers in Bengaluru have built an ammonia sensor sensitive enough to catch leaks long before they become dangerous. It works at room temperature, and can even power itself.

A Sensor That Powers Itself

SciTech0088

VOx/VS2

Sensing Material

A vanadium oxide-sulfide heterostructure

319 ppb

Detection Limit

Well below safety thresholds

10+ Weeks

Reliability, Room Temp

No heating or activation needed

Self-Powered

Piezoelectric Prototype

Powered by human motion alone

CeNS, Bengaluru: published in ACS Sensors, 14 July 2026, led by Prof. Angappane Subramanian’s team.

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Must Know

• Researchers at the Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru, an autonomous institution under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), developed a new ultra-sensitive ammonia gas sensor.
• The sensor uses a hybrid vanadium oxide-vanadium sulfide (VOx/VS2) heterostructure, engineered through a controlled surface transformation process.
• It can detect ammonia at concentrations as low as 319 parts per billion (ppb), well below recommended occupational safety limits.
• Unlike many conventional gas sensors, it operates efficiently at room temperature, without needing elevated temperatures or an external activation source.
• The findings were published in the journal ACS Sensors, announced by the Ministry of Science & Technology on 14 July 2026.

Good to Know

• The sensor showed good selectivity against other common gases, stable performance over repeated sensing cycles, and reliability over more than 10 weeks of testing.
• The team built a portable, threshold-triggered monitoring prototype, which classifies readings into safe, warning, and danger zones.
• A self-powered version was also demonstrated, integrating the sensor with a flexible piezoelectric nanogenerator. This harvests mechanical energy from ordinary human motion, removing the need for an external power source.
• The team also fabricated flexible, wearable versions on polymer, paper, and textile substrates, which kept working even under bending, twisting, and folding.
• The research was led by Prof. Angappane Subramanian, with Dr. Vishnu G. Nath, Ankur Verma, Abhijit Paul, and Dr. Subash Cherumannil Karumuthil.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Which institution developed the new ultra-sensitive ammonia sensor announced in July 2026?

Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru

National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi

Centre for Nano and Soft Matter Sciences (CeNS), Bengaluru

Raman Research Institute, Bengaluru

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Great to Know

• Ammonia is widely used in fertilizer production, refrigeration, chemical manufacturing, and agriculture. Accidental exposure can irritate the eyes, skin, and respiratory system, making reliable detection a genuine safety need in these industries.
• CeNS itself has a longer institutional history than this single result suggests. It was founded in 1991 as the Centre for Liquid Crystal Research, and took its current name and broader nanoscience focus only in 2014.
• This is a single, recently published research result. As with any new lab finding, its real-world deployment and long-term performance outside test conditions remain to be seen.