Identification and quantification of organic vapors by time-resolved diffusion in stacked mesoporous photonic crystals.

Microsensors for gas-phase analytes are fundamentally limited by their inability to discriminate between analytes. While cross-reactive arrays consisting of multiple different sensor elements provide one means to identify individual analytes, these "artificial nose" devices rely on complicated data processing algorithms and they generally suffer from significant zero-point drift. Herein, we present a single component optical sensor that is capable of identifying chemical compounds at parts-per-million concentrations. The device consists of a stack of three mesoporous silicon-based photonic crystals; a porous "drift tube" is sandwiched between two optically responsive layers. The drift layer temporally separates the optical responses of the other layers, and this difference is shown to be characteristic of the analyte.

[1]  H. Do,et al.  Surface Diffusion of Adsorbed Molecules in Porous Media: Monolayer, Multilayer, and Capillary Condensation Regimes , 2001 .

[2]  Ivan K Schuller,et al.  Comparative gas sensing in cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, and metal-free phthalocyanine chemiresistors. , 2009, Journal of the American Chemical Society.

[3]  M. Sailor,et al.  Porous Silicon‐Based Optical Microsensors for Volatile Organic Analytes: Effect of Surface Chemistry on Stability and Specificity , 2010 .

[4]  Liang Feng,et al.  An Optoelectronic Nose for Detection of Toxic Gases , 2009, Nature chemistry.

[5]  K. Suslick,et al.  A colorimetric sensor array for identification of toxic gases below permissible exposure limits. , 2010, Chemical communications.

[6]  J. Gooding,et al.  Wet chemical routes to the assembly of organic monolayers on silicon surfaces via the formation of Si-C bonds: surface preparation, passivation and functionalization. , 2010, Chemical Society reviews.

[7]  M. Sailor,et al.  Humidity‐Compensating Sensor for Volatile Organic Compounds Using Stacked Porous Silicon Photonic Crystals , 2008 .

[8]  K. Persaud,et al.  Analysis of discrimination mechanisms in the mammalian olfactory system using a model nose , 1982, Nature.

[9]  Volker Lehmann,et al.  Electrochemistry of Silicon , 2002 .

[10]  Mher Ghulinyan,et al.  Porous silicon-based rugate filters. , 2005, Applied optics.

[11]  Marc D. Woodka,et al.  Use of spatiotemporal response information from sorption-based sensor arrays to identify and quantify the composition of analyte mixtures. , 2007, Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids.

[12]  Shannon E. Stitzel,et al.  Cross-reactive chemical sensor arrays. , 2000, Chemical reviews.

[13]  Simon Breslav,et al.  Towards the Photonic Nose: A Novel Platform for Molecule and Bacteria Identification , 2010, Advanced materials.

[14]  N. Lewis,et al.  A chemically diverse conducting polymer-based "electronic nose". , 1995, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[15]  J. Kauer,et al.  A chemical-detecting system based on a cross-reactive optical sensor array , 1996, Nature.

[16]  Neal A. Rakow,et al.  A colorimetric sensor array for odour visualization , 2000, Nature.

[17]  Edward J. Wolfrum,et al.  Metal Oxide Sensor Arrays for the Detection, Differentiation, and Quantification of Volatile Organic Compounds at Sub-Parts-Per-Million Concentration Levels , 2006 .

[18]  Kenneth S Suslick,et al.  Colorimetric sensor arrays for volatile organic compounds. , 2006, Analytical chemistry.

[19]  M. Sailor,et al.  Carbon and Carbon/Silicon Composites Templated in Rugate Filters for the Adsorption and Detection of Organic Vapors , 2011, Advanced materials.

[20]  Molecular Identification by Time‐Resolved Interferometry in a Porous Silicon Film , 2001 .

[21]  Jillian M Buriak,et al.  Organometallic chemistry on silicon and germanium surfaces. , 2002, Chemical reviews.

[22]  Grégory Vincent,et al.  Optical properties of porous silicon superlattices , 1994 .

[23]  N. Bârsan,et al.  Electronic nose: current status and future trends. , 2008, Chemical reviews.

[24]  Radislav A. Potyrailo,et al.  Morpho butterfly wing scales demonstrate highly selective vapour response , 2007 .

[25]  L. Canham,et al.  Vapor sensing using the optical properties of porous silicon Bragg mirrors , 1999 .

[26]  S. Reyes,et al.  Diffusion in Porous Solids: The Parallel Contribution of Gas and Surface Diffusion Processes in Pores Extending from the Mesoporous Region into the Microporous Region , 2000 .

[27]  Georg von Freymann,et al.  Mesoporous bragg stack color tunable sensors. , 2006, Nano letters.

[28]  P. Kortunov,et al.  Surface self-diffusion of organic molecules adsorbed in porous silicon. , 2005, The journal of physical chemistry. B.

[29]  Michael J Sailor,et al.  "Smart dust": nanostructured devices in a grain of sand. , 2005, Chemical communications.