Indoor VOCs Fast Detection and Analysis Using a Portable CC/SAW Based Electronic Nose

A portable electronic nose prototype instrument for indoor air quality fast detection and analysis was developed. It takes advantage of capillary column (CC) selective separation and the convenience of the surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor (high sensitivity, stable response and tiny size). The instrument is an enhanced portable gas analyzer with a high-ratio multi-adsorbent preconcentrator, tunable separation module, programmed temperature controller and polymer-coated SAW sensors. A relatively simple but effective approach to complex indoor VOCs mixtures recognition and quantification using retention time and peak heights of SAW sensor response becomes achievable. This instrument has been found capable of achieving near real-time analysis of complex mixtures of organic compounds at several ppb(10 -9 ) levels within ten minutes. Preliminary experimental results have demonstrated that this CC/SAW sensors system has high sensitivity, stable response, good selectivity and reproducibility, which provides a potential tool for trace gas detection.