A QUARTZ-CRYSTAL MICROBALANCE-TYPE ODOR SENSOR USING PVC-BLENDED LIPID-MEMBRANE

A new odor sensor was developed, based on the quartz crystal microbala nce method, Newly developed PVC-blended lipid membrane was used as odo rant-adsorptive membrane. It was deposited on the surface of a quartz crystal resonator, with which the mass increase induced by the adsorpt ion of odorants onto the membrane was measured as the resonant frequen cy decreased. Sensor evaluation was performed, and it was shown that t he sensor had a sensitivity of 1 ppm and a response speed of less than 5 s. for amylacetate gas, which are very close to those of human bein gs and much better than conventional oxide semiconductor-type sensors or quartz crystal microbalance-type ones with other membranes, The odo r selectivity of the sensor was also proved to be similar to that of h uman beings. Finally, identification of six odorants was performed by comparing the output patterns of five sensors with different membrane lipid compositions.