date:Jun 02, 2012
Ethylene is a gaseous plant hormone, produced by fruit, and responsible for its ripening.
The team from the Holst Centre and imec said the tiny single chip electrochemical sensor is cheap enough to be used in individual fruit shipping containers. And, with a detection limit of 200-300 parts per billion (ppb), sufficiently sensitive to be able to replace the large and expensive table top equipment currently employed in fruit distributions centres.
Recent improvements have shown that the ethyl