G. Matsuno et al., A QUARTZ-CRYSTAL MICROBALANCE-TYPE ODOR SENSOR USING PVC-BLENDED LIPID-MEMBRANE, IEEE transactions on instrumentation and measurement, 44(3), 1995, pp. 739-742
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.