Acoustic chemical sensors

Acoustic Wave Sensors. Another emerging physical transduction technique involves the use of acoustic waves to detect the accumulation of species in or on a chemically sensitive film. This technique originated with the use of quartz resonators excited into thickness-shear resonance to monitor vacuum deposition of metals (11). The device is operated in an oscillator configuration. Changes in resonant frequency are simply related to the areal mass density accumulated on the crystal face. These sensors, often referred to as quartz crystal microbalances (QCMs), have been coated with chemically sensitive films to produce gas and vapor detectors (12), and have been operated in solution as Hquid-phase microbalances (13). A dual QCM that has one smooth surface and one textured surface can be used to measure both the density and viscosity of many Hquids in real time (14). 

A new chemical sensor based on surface transverse device has been developed (99) (see Sensors). It resembles a surface acoustic wave sensor with the addition of a metal grating between the tranducer and a different crystal orientation. This sensor operates at 250 mH2 and is ideally suited to measurements of surface-attached mass under fluid immersion. By immohi1i2ing atra2ine to the surface of the sensor device, the detection of atra2ine in the range of 0.06 ppb to 10 ppm was demonstrated. 

Bulk and surface imprinting strategies are straightforward tools to generate artificial antibodies. Combined with transducers such as QCM (quartz crystal microbalance), SAW (surface acoustic wave resonator), IDC (interdigital capacitor) or SPR (surface plasmon resonator) they yield powerful chemical sensors for a very broad range of analytes. 

Vol. 144. Surface-Launched Acoustic Wave Sensors Chemical Sensing and Thin-Film Characterization. By Michael Thompson and David Stone... 

Macrocyclic Compounds in Analytical Chemistry. Edited by Yury A. Zolotov Surface-Launched Acoustic Wave Sensors Chemical Sensing and Thin-Film Characterization. By Michael Thompson and David Stone Modern Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry. Edited by T. J. Platzner High Performance Capillary Electrophoresis Theory, Techniques, and Applications. Edited by Morteza G. Khaledi... 

A schematic diagram of a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) chemical sensor is composed of a BAW piezoelectric resonator with one or both surfaces covered by a membrane (CIM) (fig. 14). 

Surface acoustic wave (SAW)-type chemical sensors exploit the propagation loss of the acoustic waves along layered structures consisting of at least a substrate covered by the CIM. 

Acoustic wave sensors are also used to detect nerve and blister agents. The surface acoustic wave chemical agent detector (SAW Mini-CAD) is a commercially available, pocket-sized instrument that can monitor for trace levels of toxic vapors of sulfur-based mustard agents (e.g., distilled mustard) and G nerve agents (e.g., tabun, sarin, soman) with a high degree of specificity. Colorimetric tubes are the... 

Ann. Occup. Hyg. Ballantine DS. Acoustic wave sensors theory, design, and physico-chemical applications. San Diego, CA Academic Press, 1997. 

Acoustic wave devices have been used, primarily as electronic bandpass filters, for more than 60 years, but the first reported use as a chemical sensor appeared in 1979 [16, p7],... 

Thompson M, Stone DC (1997) Surface-launched acoustic wave sensors chemical sensing and thin-film characterization. Wiley, New York... 

There are several applications of ZnO that are due to its excellent piezoelectric properties [28,164]. Examples are surface-acoustic wave (SAW) devices and piezoelectric sensors [28,165-167]. Typically, SAW devices are used as band pass filters in the tele-communications industry, primarily in mobile phones and base stations. Emerging field for SAW devices are sensors in automotive applications (torque and pressure sensors), medical applications (chemical sensors), and other industrial applications (vapor, humidity, temperature, and mass sensors). Advantages of acoustic wave sensors are low costs, ruggedness, and a high sensitivity. Some sensors can even be interrogated wirelessly, i.e., such sensors do not require a power source. 

The addition of mass provides the means of transduction for many chemical sensors, including surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, quartz crystal microbalances (QCM), and microcantilevers. In all these devices, the mass addition either perturbs the vibration, oscillations, or deflection within the transducer. The mode of transduction in an optical interferometer can also be linked to mass addition the sensor s response is altered by refractive index changes in the material being monitored. It is possible that this change can be elicited solely from refractive index changes without the addition of mass, although in sensing a particular... 

Absorption of a solute liquid or vapor into a polymer film can profoundly affect the viscoelastic behavior of the polymer. The magnitude of this effect depends on the nature of the solute/polymer interactions and on the amount of solute absorbed. The solute/polymer interactions can range fttun simple dispersion to hydrogen-bonding and other specific interactions. The extent of absorption can be described by the partition coefficient, AT, which quantifies the thermcxlynamic distribution of the solute between two phases (K = coiKentration in polymer divided by die concentration in the liquid or vapor phase in contact with the polymer). It has long been known that acoustic wave devices can be used to probe solubility and partition coefficients (53,67). Due to the relevance of these topics to chemical sensors, more comprehensive discussions of these interaction mechanisms and the significance of the partition coefficient are included in Chapter 5. 

Coating-Analyte Interactions and Acoustic-Wave Chemical Sensors... 

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