The combination of the affinity of gold for mercury and nanosizedframeworks has allowed for the design and fabrication of novel kinds of sensors withpromising sensing features for environmental applications. Specifically,conductive sensors based on composite nanofibrous electrospun layers oftitania easily decorated with gold nanoparticles were developed to obtainnanostructured hybrid materials capable of entrapping and revealing gaseouselemental mercury(GEM)traces from the environment. The electrical properties of the resultingchemosensors were measured. A few minutes of air sampling were sufficient todetect the concentration of mercury in the air, ranging between 20 and 100 ppb, without using traps or gas carriers (LOD: 1.5 ppb). Longer measurementsallowed the sensor to detect lower concentrations of GEM. The resultingchemosensors are expected to be low cost and very stable (due to the peculiarstructure), requiring low power, low maintenance, and simple equipment.
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