A Review of Wearable Detectors for Toxic Environments: Devices, Mechanisms, Integration, and Application Scenarios

Abstract

Wearable chemical detectors are transitioning from laboratory prototypes to field-ready systems for protecting workers and the public in toxic environments. This review synthesizes insights from six complementary sources spanning comprehensive reviews, methodological scoping studies, and recent device-level advances in on-skin gas analysis. The field is organized into three eras—past (foundational single-analyte devices), present (flexible and networked multi-sensor systems), and near future (on-body chemical analytics with context-aware intelligence). Sensing mechanisms are compared across electrochemical, metal-oxide, optical, colorimetric, and 2D-material chemiresistive approaches, along with power and integration strategies, body placement considerations, and deployment scenarios including industrial safety, environmental exposure science, and physiological monitoring. Converging trends include flexible/nano-enabled materials, hybrid selectivity via sensor arrays and machine learning (ML), and diffusion-based on-skin sampling. Persistent gaps remain in selectivity, long-term calibration stability, humidity/temperature cross-sensitivities, and user acceptance in harsh workplaces. The review concludes with a research agenda for cumulative-dose dosimetry, contamination-aware calibration, multi-modal fusion with motion/thermal context, and validated benchmarks linking dose to health endpoints.