Detecting insect infestation using a polymer based sensor array

An electro-active polymer based sensor array was designed, fabricated and tested to detect volatile organic compounds secreted by plants during insect infestation. The sensor array was inexpensive, and easy to fabricate and could be used for onsite detection of insect infestation. The array consisted of chemical resistor sensors with micro fabricated interdigitated electrodes coated with electro active polymers. Three types of polymers were used as active layers in this study: polythiophene, carbon/polymer and polyaniline. The polymer coatings were deposited onto the sensor platforms via drop casting and spin coating methods. The sensor array was exposed and found to be sensitive to a variety of phytochemical including γ-terpinene α-pinene, p-cymene, farnesene, limonene and cis-hexenyl acetate. The sensor array created a unique fingerprint pattern for each of these chemicals. The fingerprints were further analyzed using principal component analysis.