Highly sensitive detection and discrimination of biogenic amines utilizingarrays of polyaniline/carbon black composite vapor detectors

Chemically-sensitive resistors have been developed that allow rapid detecti on of an important class of compounds, biogenic amines, at levels of 1-10 p arts per trillion in ambient air. The materials are composites of a conduct ing organic polymer, the emeraldine salt of polyaniline, with particles of another conducting phase, carbon black. The resistance response of an EMDBS A(1:0.5)/CB (80:20) detector exposed to water (a), acetone (b), methanol (c ), ethyl acetate (d), and butanol (e) is approximately a factor of a millio n smaller than that to butylamine (f).