Stabilization of coating for QCM odor sensors with liquid GC materials supported by lipopolymers and lipids

The paper reports on development of a method for stabilization of coatings for QCM odor sensors that use liquid GC stationary phase materials. The liquid materials tend to be easily removed from the sensorʹs surface when coated directly onto its surface. The proposed method employs chemisorbed lipopolymers and lipids to form a matrix into which the liquid GC materials are encapsulated. The fabrication method is relatively simple as the sensing films are formed in a sorption process from a single solution. The obtained experimental results show significantly enhanced stability of the fabricated sensing films. The obtained sensors reproducibly show high sensitivities to vapors of selected odorants with detection limits in sub-ppm range. They also showed a good capability to discriminate among the odorant samples.