Sensor Array for Volatile Organic Compounds based on Doped Poly (2,5-dimethyl aniline)

Abstract

A sensor array containing five different sensing materials has been created that is able to distinguish between six different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at an analyte concentration of 5 ppm. While none of the sensing materials, poly (2,5-dimethyl aniline) (P25DMA) and P25DMA doped with four different metal oxide nanoparticles (Al¬2O3, NiO, TiO2, and ZnO), were selective towards any single analyte on their own, through the use of a filtering algorithm, this partial selectivity was exploited. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used as that a filtering algorithm, which was able to separate the responses from the sensing materials and identify six different gas analytes (acetaldehyde, acetone, benzene, ethanol, formaldehyde, and methanol). Both unknown gas analytes and a gas mixture were evaluated to determine the effectiveness of this sensor array.