Overview
The present invention provides a sensor for detecting the oxygen leakage in packed items and storage plants. The present invention further provides a process for preparing the sensor by ion-pairing of methylene blue (MB) with dodecyl sulphate (DS) to produce a water insoluble form of dye (solvent soluble and compatible with food items), which can be used to create an UV-activated, oxygen sensitive indicator that can be printed on a variety of different hydrophobic polymers. The sensitizer in the indicator solution is TiO2. The present invention also provides a method of detecting air leakage using the sensor with high sensitivity and high reproducibility. The detections are based both on the changes in color of the sensor as well as resistance of sensor. The developed sensor gives visual response in less than a minute. The indicator sensor is bleached quite rapidly under UV light and recovers their original color when exposed to air. The rate of recovery of original color of these nanotechnology based sensor is proportional, to the ambient level of oxygen.