Demonstration of Wireless Gas Sensor Using

Reduced Graphene Oxide Loaded Patch Antenna

* 2
Lei Song1ˈBian Wu1 , Xingfei Zhang1,2ˈBeiju Huang
1 National Key Laboratory of Antennas and Microwave Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, 710071, China
2 State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing
100083, China
*E-mail: bwu@mail.xidian.edu.cn

Abstract: In this paper, a wireless ammonia gas sensor and shorten the response and recovery time in gas sensing
utilizing patch antenna loaded with sensitive hybrid material [6]. Therefore, we use patch antenna loaded with hybrid
composed of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and nano-silver
ink (Ag-ink) is designed and realized. By analyzing the electric material composed of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and
field and surface current distributions, the graphene-based nano-silver ink (Ag-ink) to realize a high-performance
sensing material is loaded on the terminal of the patch antenna wireless gas sensor. And its sensing principle can be
to achieve wireless gas sensing. In the simulation, there is a described as follows: Graphene is a typical p-type
35MHz frequency shift in the reflection coefficient of the semiconductor, so in the sensing process, once oxidative or
wireless gas sensor with a small change of sheet resistance of
graphene-based material. Meanwhile, the wireless gas sensor is reductive gas molecules meet with graphene, they will
fabricated and the wired and wireless experiments are carried inject electrons into graphene or absorb electrons from
out to demonstrate its sensing performance. When the graphene, which will change the conductivity of graphene,
concentration of the gas varies from 0ppm to 200ppm, a so that the radiation characteristics of patch antenna loaded
10MHz frequency shift in the reflection coefficient can be with graphene-based sensing material will change as well to
observed in the wired measurement, and a 5MHz frequency
shift in the wireless experiment by using another transmitting achieve wireless sensing.
antenna with 20cm distance away, both of which show that the
wireless gas sensor is high sensitive.
II. Analysis of the wireless gas sensor

I. Introduction The patch antenna is designed to work around at 5.8GHz,

and stable Teflon is used as the substrate with a permittivity
With the development of gas detection in real-time of 2.33, loss tangent of 0.002, thickness of 1.9mm. And in
analysis of environmental monitoring and the development order to achieve high-performance wireless sensing, we
of the Internet of Things (IoTs), high-performance wireless analyze the electromagnetic characteristics and then attach
gas sensor has become a hot topic of research. As we know, the sensing material to the terminal of the U-shaped patch
because graphene with thickness of 0.34nm has excellent antenna, as shown in Figure 1, and the corresponding
electrical properties, mechanical properties and optical electric field and surface current distributions are shown in
properties, it has been extensively studied in the energy Figure 2.
batteries, flexible devices and light-sensitive components.
In addition to the special properties above, we note that Graphene-based

graphene has a specific surface area of 2630m2·g-1, which

sensing material

makes it extremely sensitive to changes in the environment,

especially in the chemical environment [1]. So, graphene Teflon substrate
can be used as the sensing material to fabricate a Metal
high-sensitivity gas sensor.
In the other hand, the wireless function is mainly realized 
by means of different forms of antenna, such as coil antenna (a)
[2], dipole antenna [3] and substrate integrated waveguide
(SIW) slot antenna [4]. Also, wireless sensors based on
radio frequency identification (RFID) technology have
W3

L3

more research, in which the dipole antenna is mostly used

[5]. Although those graphene-based sensors above can
W1

W2

L1
achieve wireless sensing, there are still some disadvantages
to integrate, complex structure and short distance of a

wireless sensing. Therefore, we design a high-performance L2

wireless gas sensor by means of patch antenna, with

advantages of small size, easy integration and high-gain.
L 
(b)
Since the graphene film modified by metallic
nanoparticles not only has large specific area, but also Figure 1. Schematic of the graphene-based wireless gas sensor: (a) 3D
model; (b) top view (Structure parameters: L=30, L1=8, W1=2.5, L2=13.8,
increase the sensitivity of graphene-based sensing material, W2=20, L3=6.75, W3=5.25, a=9.5, all in mm).

978-1-5386-1241-5/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE ICCEM 2018

 III. Demonstration of the wireless gas sensor
For the fabrication of the patch antenna, the
corresponding parameters and materials are shown in
Figure 1, and the thickness of the metal is 2.0mm.
The fabrication process of the graphene-based sensing
material is described as follows: With the modified
Hummer’s method, the graphene oxide (GO) can be
 prepared from the natural graphite powder and reduced to
be reduced graphene oxide (rGO)[7], and then mix the rGO
(a)
with the nano-silver ink to get the graphene-based sensing
material. The morphology of the sensing material shown in
Figure 4(a) is detected by field emission scanning electron
microscope (SEM) (Hitachi S4800 city country). We can
obviously see the dispersed or aggregated Ag nanoparticles
are attached to the fluctuant and transparent rGO film,
which shows that the synthesis of sensing film is
satisfactory. And then we drop the rGO/Ag-ink hybrid
sensing material on the terminal of the patch antenna to get
 the wireless gas sensor, as shown in Figure 4(b).
(b) rGO film Ag nanoparticles
Figure 2. The simulated electric field and surface current distributions of
the graphene-based wireless gas sensor: (a) electric field distribution; (b)
surface current distribution.
In Figure 2, it is obvious that the electric field and surface
current are very small on the graphene-based sensing
material, which not only ensures the sensitivity of the
wireless sensor, but also minimizes the impact on the
radiation characteristics of the patch antenna. And in the
sensing process, the gas molecules with different
concentration contact with the sensing material, changing
the conductivity of the graphene-based material, which will
result in mismatching between the U-shaped patch antenna

and the sensing material in varying degrees. At the same
(a)
time, the electromagnetic characteristics of the wireless gas
sensor will change as well to realize wireless sensing.
According to the sensing principle described above, in
the HFSS electromagnetic simulation software, the
graphene sensing material can be set to be impedance
boundary conditions, and the impedance range in sensing
process is set to vary from 1050Ω/sq to 1200Ω/sq. The
simulated reflection coefficient of the wireless sensor is
shown in Figure 3, and there is a 35MHz frequency shift in
the process, which means that the wireless gas sensor
designed above can achieve high-sensitivity wireless
sensing.
-10

-20 (b)
Figure 4. (a) The SEM image of the graphene-based sensing material.
(b)The photograph of the graphene-based wireless gas sensor.
S11(dB)

-30
A wired experiment is carried out to demonstrate its
-40
performance and the device is shown in Figure 5(a). In the
1050ohm/sq
experiment, we choose the reductive ammonia gas to test
-50
1100ohm/sq the performance of the wireless gas sensor. By injecting
1150ohm/sq
1200ohm/sq ammonia into the chamber with different concentrations,
such as 100ppm, 150ppm and 200ppm, the reflection
5.70 5.75 5.80 5.85 5.90 5.95
Freq(GHz)  coefficient varies with different concentrations of ammonia,
Figure 3. Simulated reflection coefficients of the wireless gas sensor with a and the experiment result is shown in Figure 5(b), from
small change of sheet resistance of graphene-based sensing material.
which we observe a 10MHz frequency shift.
 still an obvious frequency shift of the transmitting antenna,
chamber which means the wireless gas sensor designed in this paper
Mass flow
NH3 controller
value has a significant sensitivity for ammonia sensing. Due to the
Wireless gas page limit, the wireless experiment results are not included
sensor
exhaust
in this paper. In the next work, we will utilize a high
performance antenna or reader to replace the same
transmitting antenna to realize a longer wireless sensing
N2
Network
distance and higher performance.
analyzer

 IV. Conclusion

(a) In this paper, a high performance wireless gas sensor is

proposed by combining patch antenna with sensitive hybrid
material composed of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and
-20
nano-silver ink (Ag-ink). As the gas concentration varies
from 0ppm to 200ppm, we can observe a 10MHz frequency
shift in the wired experiment and a 5MHz frequency shift in
the wireless experiment. It is notable that the wireless
S11 (dB)

-30
sensing performance can be further improved by means of
high-performance antennas. Also, the proposed sensor has
-40 0 ppm the advantages of high sensitivity, easy integration and low
100 ppm
150 ppm cost, so it is a good candidate for wireless gas sensors, and
200 ppm play an important role in the environment monitoring and
-50 the Internet of Things (IoTs).
5.76 5.78 5.80 5.82 5.84
Freq(GHz)
 Acknowledgment
(b)
The work is funded by the National Natural Science
Figure 5. The sensing performance of the wireless gas sensor: (a)
Experimental set-up; (b) Wired experimental result.
Foundation of China (NSFC) (61771360, 61604115,
For the wireless experiment, the radiation performance of 61601360, 61675191); the Shaanxi Innovative Talent
the wireless gas sensor is tested in the microwave anechoic Promotion Program (2017KJXX-32); the Natural Science
cabinet, and the corresponding result is shown in Figure 6. Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China
And we notice that the measured maximum gain (solid line) (2016ZDJC-09); the Fundamental Research Funds for the
of the sensing antenna is about 5.48dBi, and fits well with Central Universities.
the simulation result (symbolled line), both of which show References
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