title: A paper-based cantilever array sensor: Monitoring volatile organic compounds with naked eye.
abstract: Volatile organic compound (VOC) detection is critical for controlling industrial and commercial emissions, environmental monitoring, and public health. Simple, portable, rapid and low-cost VOC sensing platforms offer the benefits of on-site and real-time monitoring anytime and anywhere. The best and most practically useful approaches to monitoring would include equipment-free and power-free detection by the naked eye. In this work, we created a novel, paper-based cantilever sensor array that allows simple and rapid naked-eye VOC detection without the need for power, electronics or readout interface/equipment. This simple VOC detection method was achieved using (i) low-cost paper materials as a substrate and (ii) swellable thin polymers adhered to the paper. Upon exposure to VOCs, the polymer swelling adhered to the paper-based cantilever, inducing mechanical deflection that generated a distinctive composite pattern of the deflection angles for a specific VOC. The angle is directly measured by the naked eye on a 3-D protractor printed on a paper facing the cantilevers. The generated angle patterns are subjected to statistical algorithms (linear discriminant analysis (LDA)) to classify each VOC sample and selectively detect a VOC. We classified four VOC samples with 100% accuracy using LDA.
authors.affiliation: Bioelectronics & Microsystems Laboratory, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, State University of New York-Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA.
authors.forename: Arwa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fraiwan
authors.affiliation: Bioelectronics & Microsystems Laboratory, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, State University of New York-Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA.
authors.forename: Hankeun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Bioelectronics & Microsystems Laboratory, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, State University of New York-Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13902, USA. Electronic address: sechoi@binghamton.edu.
authors.forename: Seokheun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Choi
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010209:Paper; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry; D012997:Solvents / Q000737:chemistry; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D011108:Polymers; D012997:Solvents; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds
keywords: Gas sensors; Naked-eye detection; Paper-based cantilever sensors; Volatile organic compounds