Low-cost scalable quartz crystal microbalance array for environmental sensing

Conference · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2016

OSTI ID:1328302

Anazagasty, Cristain ^[1]; Hianik, Tibor ^[2]; Ivanov, Ilia N ^[3]

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1. University of Puerto Rico
2. Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia
3. ORNL

Proliferation of environmental sensors for internet of things (IoT) applications has increased the need for low-cost platforms capable of accommodating multiple sensors. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) crystals coated with nanometer-thin sensor films are suitable for use in high-resolution (~1 ng) selective gas sensor applications. We demonstrate a scalable array for measuring frequency response of six QCM sensors controlled by low-cost Arduino microcontrollers and a USB multiplexer. Gas pulses and data acquisition were controlled by a LabVIEW user interface. We test the sensor array by measuring the frequency shift of crystals coated with different compositions of polymer composites based on poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) while films are exposed to water vapor and oxygen inside a controlled environmental chamber. Our sensor array exhibits comparable performance to that of a commercial QCM system, while enabling high-throughput 6 QCM testing for under $1,000. We use deep neural network structures to process sensor response and demonstrate that the QCM array is suitable for gas sensing, environmental monitoring, and electronic-nose applications.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1328302
• Resource Relation: Conference: SPIE Organic Sensors and Bioelectronics IX, San Diego, CA, USA, 20160828, 20160901
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English