Designing chemically selective microsensor arrays using ionic liquid doped ionomers

Development of techniques for designing microsensor arrays with high sensitivity and selectivity has been a continuing challenge in the field of chemical sensing. Typically, sensitivity defines the detection limit, the identification and differentiation of the various components in the gas mixtures is accomplished by the pattern of response, i.e. selectivity of the sensor array. In this study, the performance of four distinctly functionalized resonator-pixels is explored to show the capability of room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) as selective sorbent materials in designing microsensor arrays for the application of chemical detection and gas discrimination. The response of multi-pixel resonator array functionalized with a single solid ionomer matrix, DPA-PS:BP, but doped with various RTILs is used to obtain frequency and Q-factor responses upon exposure to multianalyte volatile organic compounds and its mixtures. The responses generated from the carefully selected RTIL-doped ionomer is then used to explore the uniqueness of the responses which can be used in the determination of components in organic vapor mixtures. For better discrimination of gas mixtures, the uniqueness of sensor response to analytes is utmost important factor to be considered. This paper presents the results on the integration of RTIL-doped ionomer system for discrimination of gases and vapors.