A solid-state hydrocarbon sensor for environmental applications

We have applied CVD (chemical vapor deposition) diamond chemical sensor to detect benzene and toluene, volatile organic compounds, possible indication of the existence of environmental hazardous and petroleum in soil/subsoil. Steady-state and transient response of the sensor for both gases have been extensively studied. These studies have shown that the sensor shows a large sensitivity, fast response, high selectivity, large dynamic range, repeatable/reproducible response for the detection of benzene and toluene gases. Activation energy analysis of the sensor for both gases resulted very small values, confirming fast response and high selectivity.