title: Design, construction and testing of a system for detection of toxic gases based on piezoelectric crystals.
abstract: A system for static operation of toxic gas sensors based on piezoelectric crystals was constructed as a preliminary step in the development of this type of sensor. The sensing part of the setup consists of a twin oscillating circuit assembled from commercially available electronic parts mounted on a motherboard. The oscillating circuits can accommodate two piezoelectric crystals, of which one or both can be coated with different materials, or a single one, as required. The sensing assembly (crystals plus oscillating circuits) is placed in a customized test chamber that allows one to control and reproduce its internal environment. Once assembled and fine-tuned, the proposed setup was used to test a commercially available piezoelectric crystal for sensing formaldehyde in order to expand available information on this type of sensor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Cádiz, Apdo 40, E-11510 Puerto Real, Cádiz, Spain.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Leyva
authors.forename: J L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: de Cisneros
authors.forename: D G
authors.initials: DG
authors.lastname: de Barreda
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Becerra