Silver Nanowire-Tungsten Oxide Hybrids: Rapid-Kinetic Amine Sensor for Food Freshness Monitoring

Abstract

Pork, shrimp, and milk are common staples but are prone to spoilage, leading to food safety issues. Traditional methods for spoilage detection are often inefficient and impractical for rapid on-site use. Herein, silver nanowires interwoven with hierarchical tungsten oxide (Ag/WO₃) is explored as high charge-transfer material for rapid-kinetic gas sensors. The as-fabricated Ag/WO₃ sensor demonstrates 3-fold increase in sensitivity and 3-fold reduction in response time to triethylamine (C₆H₁₅N) as compared with pristine WO₃ sensors. Owing to exceptional sensitivity, repeatability, and long-term stability, the Ag/WO₃ sensor enables effective detection of spoilage in shrimp, pork and milk by monitoring amine release in real applications. Furthermore, an artificial neural network (ANN) model is established for predicting food spoilage with 98% accuracy. The presented sensor not only shows great potential for efficient and sensitive food safety monitoring but also offers an easy solution to rationally design advanced gas sensors by utilizing high charge-transfer hybrids.