Discrimination and Quantification of Volatile Organic Compounds in the ppb-Range with Gas Sensitive SiC-Field Effect Transistors

Abstract

Gas sensitive FETs based on SiC have been studied for the discrimination and quantification of hazardous volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the low ppb range. The sensor performance was increased by temperature cycled operation (TCO) and data evaluation based on multivariate statistics, here Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). Discrimination of formaldehyde, naphthalene and benzene with varying concentrations in the ppb range is demonstrated. In addition, it is shown that naphthalene can be quantified in the relevant concentration range independent of the relative humidity and against a high ethanol background. Hence, gas sensitive SiC-FETs are suitable sensors for determining indoor air quality.