Chemical sensing and pattern recognition

Most conventional chemosensors exhibit a rather limited selectivity. The use of a sensor array together with proper signal processing makes it possible to achieve a high, electronically controllable selectivity. Different approaches to this technique are described, together with experimental results. Also discussed is the impact of this pattern-recognition method on the development of sensor elements. It is predicted that the trend to build arrays will increase. Since in many cases the packaging, heating, etc. take more space and cost that the actual sensor element, an array must not necessarily be much more expensive and larger than a single element