Selective flexible sensor for monitoring volatile organic compounds in museum display cases

Abstract

Aim of this work is the development of a new kind of corrosion sensors, based on low-cost flexible substrates, specifically designed to detect Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) producing significant degradation of artifacts in museum display cases. Sensors have been fabricated and tested in relevant environment with three of the most relevant VOCs (acetic acid, formic acid and formaldehyde) to the artifacts preservation. Sensitivity has been measured to be lower than 1 ppm, which is several times better than what reported in the literature on corrosion sensors for the same VOCs. In addition, different sensors, arranged with different active materials, have been implemented for the first time into a so-called multi-sensor architecture, aimed at demonstrating VOC specificity: in particular, we report here on a preliminary test in which the multi-sensor has been able to be selective between acetic acid and formaldehyde.