A review of transparent gas sensors: From material development to practical challenges

초록

Transparent gas sensors represent an emerging class of devices that combine gas detection capabilities with high optical transmittance, enabling their integration into advanced electronic platforms such as smart windows, displays, and wearable systems. Despite significant progress, achieving a balance between transparency and robust sensing performance remains a fundamental challenge for practical applications. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments in transparent gas sensors based on four representative material classes: metal oxides, conductive polymers, non-oxide nanomaterials (including graphene, CNTs, TMDCs, and MXenes), and hybrid composites. Particular emphasis is placed on process-oriented strategies to enhance optical transparency without compromising sensor functionality. These include ultrathin film design, nanostructuring, low-temperature solution processing, and scalable large-area deposition methods, each tailored to mitigate the inherent limitations of specific material systems. In addition to outlining material-specific trade-offs, this review discusses emerging research directions such as low-power and self-powered sensor architectures, mechanical durability for flexible applications, and AI-assisted signal processing for enhanced selectivity and real-time environmental monitoring. Based on these insights, a comparative assessment of each material class is presented, addressing both their intrinsic performance trade-offs and the suitablity of fabrication methods for transparent device integration. This review concludes by outlining future directions for the technological advancement of transparent gas sensor platforms.

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