Polymer-coated surface acoustic wave sensor arrays for organic vapor detection

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:539030

Grate, J W; Kaganove, S N; Patrash, S J ^[1]

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1. Pacific Northwest National Lab., Richland, WA (United States); and others

Arrays of polymer-coated surface acoustic wave (SAW) vapor sensors have shown great promise for detecting a variety of organic vapors at relevant levels. Both modeling studies and experimental studies have shown that many toxic organic vapors can be detected at or below permissible exposure limits. However, single sensors are not adequately selective for many applications. Sensor arrays with chemometric data processing offer a means to greatly increase the selectivity of the analytical measurement. This raises a number of issues with regard to selecting a set of polymer materials for use in the sensor array. We have recently completed the collection of a large data set where sixteen diverse polymers coated on SAW devices were tested against 18 organic vapors. Chemometric analysis of the data matrix demonstrated the ability to classify nonpolar vapors by compound class, and to distinguish four chlorinated hydrocarbons individually.

• OSTI ID: 539030
• Report Number(s): CONF-960807--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

44 INSTRUMENTATION
INCLUDING NUCLEAR AND PARTICLE DETECTORS
DETECTION
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE
POLYMERS
VAPORS