Quartz crystal microbalance odor sensor coated with mixed-thiol-compound sensing film

A study was conducted to investigate the effect of the sensing film structure for the sensor response and to develop a new deposition method for composing a sensing film with a desired response property. The structure of thiol compounds were observed by atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning Maxwell stress microscope (SMM) in order to verify the relation between the film structure and the feature of the sensor response. Results emphasize the importance of both the sensing film structure and the atomic group on the sensing film surface to high selectivity. Furthermore, a method was developed for creating a sensing film with a specific selectivity.