A quartz crystal microbalance-type odor sensor using PVC-blended lipid membrane

A new odor sensor was developed based on the quartz crystal microbalance method. Newly developed PVC-blended lipid membrane was used as odorant-adsorptive membrane. It was deposited on the surface of a quartz crystal resonator, with which the mass increase induced by the adsorption of odorants onto the membrane was measured as the resonant frequency decreased. Sensor evaluation was performed, and it was shown that the sensor had a sensitivity of 1 ppm and a response speed of less than 5 s for amylacetate gas, which are very close to those of human beings and much better than conventional oxide semiconductor-type sensors or quartz crystal microbalance-type ones-with other membranes. The odor selectivity of the sensor was also proved to be similar to that of human beings. Finally, identification of six odorants was performed by comparing the output patterns of five sensors with different membrane lipid compositions