Discrimination of VOCs using Chemiresistive Sensor Array - Towards electronic nose applications

Abstract

We present the development of sensor array using commercial chemiresistive sensors for detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) which are dominant in breath during certain health conditions and as indoor pollutants. The sensors array output showed different voltages in response to varying concentration of individual VOCs and different ratios of VOCs in a mixture. The responses from the sensors array were processed using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) which shows that the developed sensors array can work to identify individual VOC from the mixture. The authors are now working on in-house sensors to use these in an array form with exposure to more VOCs and aim to develop an electronic nose system for sensing the presence of VOCs in breath for human health and indoor environment monitoring.