Ammonia Gas Detection
Ammonia gas (NH3) is a colorless gas comprised of nitrogen and hydrogen. It has a pungent, distinctive odor and is commonly used in the manufacturing of cleaning chemicals, textiles, fertilizer, pharmaceuticals, plastics, and refrigerants. In its purest form, ammonia gas is hydrophilic and attaches easily to moisture present in the air or the human respiratory system. It is also highly caustic and corrosive, and containers containing the gas can explode if exposed to high temperatures. Even though ammonia gas is widely used across various industries, this combination of characteristics makes it extremely dangerous to humans at high concentrations.
The NH3 sensor according to the principle of electrochemistry, uses the electrochemical oxidation process of the gas to be measured on the working electrode in the electrolytic cell. The working electrode and the reference electrode of the electrolytic cell are kept at a proper potential by the electronic circuit. The electrochemical oxidation of the gas under test can occur, because the Faraday current generated by the oxygen during the oxidation and reduction reactions is small and can be ignored, so the current generated by the electrochemical reaction of the gas under test is proportional to its concentration and follows Faraday's law . In this way, the concentration of the gas to be measured can be determined by measuring the magnitude of the current.
