Quartz crystal microbalance with gold electrodes as a sensor for monitoring gas-phase adsorption/desorption of short chain alkylthiol and alkyl sulfides

A quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) with gold electrodes was used as a sensor to monitor the gas-phase adsorption/desorption of ethanethiol, propane-1-thiol, 2-methylpropane-2-thiol, 2-methylpropane-1-thiol, butane-1-thiol, butane-2-thiol, pentanethiol, methyl sulfide and ethyl methyl sulfide. The results show that the QCM is able to distinguish adsorbed layers with different binding energies from the gold.