A smart gas sensor using polymer-film-coated quartz resonator microbalance

Abstract The copolymerized propylene–butyl, of which the “solubility parameter” almost coincides with that of harmful gases such as toluene, xylene, diethyether, chloroform and acetone, is chosen as a material of the sensing membrane coated on the quartz resonator. It is found that copolymerized propylene–butyl-film-coated quartz resonator microbalance gas sensor exhibits high sensitivity and excellent selectivity for these harmful gases, especially for toluene and xylene gas, suggesting that the “solubility parameter” is effective to the functional design of the sensing membrane of quartz resonator gas sensors.