Abstract
A rapid, sensitive, low-cost device to detect trimethylamine was presented in thispaper. The preparation of water soluble polyaniline was firstly studied. Then the polyanilinewas characterized via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), UV-visiblespectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Based on the water solublepolyaniline film, a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor for trimethylamine detectionwas fabricated and its characteristics were examined. The sensor consisted of one quartzcrystal oscillator coated with the polyaniline film for sensing and the other one forreference. Pretreated with trimethylamine, the QCM sensor had an excellent linearsensitivity to trimethylamine. Easily recovered by N2 purgation, the response of the sensorexhibited a good repeatability. Responses of the sensor to trimethylamine, ethanol and ethylacetate were compared, and the results showed that the response was related to the polarityof the analyte vapor. Experimental result also showed that the sensitivity of the sensor wasrelatively stable within one month. The simple and feasible method to prepare and coat thepolyaniline sensing film makes it promising for mass production.
Highlights
Biogenic amines are formed by the activity of bacterial amino acid decarboxylase during the degradation processes of proteins, which have a carcinogenic effect on human body and can be used to indicate bacterial contamination
Responses of the sensor to trimethylamine, ethanol and ethyl acetate were compared, and the results showed that the response was related to the polarity of the analyte vapor
Trimethylamine is derived from diet either directly from the consumption of foods containing trimethlamine, or by the intake of food containing precursors to trimethylamine such as trimethylamine-N-oxide, choline and L-carnitine
Summary
Biogenic amines are formed by the activity of bacterial amino acid decarboxylase during the degradation processes of proteins, which have a carcinogenic effect on human body and can be used to indicate bacterial contamination. Polyaniline, a kind of conductive conjugated polymer, has been regarded as a good sensing material due to its advantages of gas sensing ability and optimum performance at room temperature It has been exploited in thin film sensors for several gas molecules as well as volatile organic compounds [12,13,14,15,16]. Quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors were widely investigated due to their high sensitivity, durability and linearity for mass of the target materials [20,21,22,23,24]. We attempted to coat a polyaniline film on a quartz crystal surface, to make a low-cost, high-sensitivity and rapidresponse QCM trimethlamine gas sensor.
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