Abstract
Organic vapor sensors are used in diverse applications ranging from environmental monitoring to biomedical diagnostics. Among a number of these sensors, quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensors prepared by coating ionic liquids (ILs) or their composites are promising devices for the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in complex chemical mixtures. Ionic liquids are remarkable materials, which exhibit tunable physico-chemical properties, chemical and thermal stability, multiple interactions with diverse group of molecules, and enormous structural variability. Moreover, ILs exhibit viscoelastic properties, and hence these materials are ideal for creation of QCM virtual sensor arrays. While the scientific literature on IL-coated QCM sensors is rapidly growing, there is still much to learn. This manuscript provides a comprehensive review on the development of IL-coated QCM sensors and multi-sensor arrays as well as their applications for the analysis of VOCs in complex mixtures. Furthermore, IL-coated QCM virtual sensor arrays and their applications are presented. A short overview of some of the QCM designs, future research areas, and recommendations are also discussed. This short review is a necessary first step towards standardization and further development of QCM for the analysis of VOCs.
Highlights
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemical compounds which evaporate under normal conditions of temperature and pressure [1]
The ILs that exist as liquids at room temperature are commonly referred to as room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs), while those which exist as solids are sometimes referred to as frozen ionic liquids [55]
This article provides an overview on the current state of research in the use of ILs as quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensing materials for the detection and classification of complex chemical mixtures comprising volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
Summary
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are organic chemical compounds which evaporate under normal conditions of temperature and pressure [1]. Interested readers are referred to recently published reviews that cover other QCM sensing materials [39,40,41,42,43] This manuscript summarizes: (i) The working principle of QCM and QCM-D (quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring); (ii) ILs and their characteristic properties that make them suitable sensing materials for QCM; (iii) recent advances in IL-coated QCM sensors and multi-sensor arrays; and (iv) recent advances in IL-coated virtual sensor arrays and their applications. Future prospects of IL-based QCM/QCM-D sensors in the field of organic vapor sensing and recommendations for the improvement of the QCM sensors are discussed This short review is a necessary first step towards standardization and further development of QCM for the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
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