Novel Approach for Modeling an Ionic Imprinted Polymer Based SAW Sensor with COMSOL Multiphysics

Modeling a Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) sensor response as a chemosensor and not only as just an electronic transducer was performed with COMSOL Multiphysics. For this study, the SAW’s sensing area was functionalized with an ionic imprinted polymer (IIP), designed for the selective detection of lead ions. The idea consists in subdividing the IIP into elementary blocks whose physical properties can be modified separately. Three configurations have been envisaged: the IIP before and after lead ions extraction and the non-imprinted polymer (NIP). The generation of shear-horizontal waves on LiTaO3 piezoelectric substrate is confirmed by recording the displacement amplitude versus time, according to the three space directions. The sensors sensitivity is estimated from the delays induced by the incorporation of the lead ions in the IIP layer. To the best of our knowledge, this approach has never been presented in the literature.