A Comparative Analysis of Uncoated and PAN Nanofiber-Coated QCM Sensors for Volatile Organic Compound Sensing
Maria Gabriela Sabandar (a), Riris Sukowati (a), Dian Ahmad Hapidin (a), and Khairurrijal Khairurrijal (a,b,c, *)

(a) Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bandung Institute of Technology, Jalan Ganesa 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
(b) University Center of Excellence - Nutraceutical, Bioscience, and Biotechnology Research Center, Bandung Institute of Technology, Jalan Ganesa 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia
(c) Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Sumatera Institute of Technology, Jalan Terusan Ryacudu, Way Huwi, Lampung 35365, Indonesia
*krijal[at]itb.ac.id

Abstract

Sensitive and selective detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is crucial to support air quality monitoring and the implementation of sustainable development principles. In this study, a comparative study was conducted on the performance of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM)-based gas sensor without coating (blank) and a QCM coated with electrospinning polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers. Five types of VOC gases were tested in this study, namely dimethylformamide (DMF), isopropyl alcohol (IPA), methanol, acetone, and tetrahydrofuran (THF). The test results showed that coating the QCM with PAN nanofibers significantly increased the sensitivity to all gases tested. QCM with PAN coating showed the highest sensitivity to methanol at 2.3539 Hz/ppm, followed by IPA (1.733 Hz/ppm), acetone (0.688 Hz/ppm), DMF (0.633 Hz/ppm), and THF (0.4647 Hz/ppm). In comparison, the sensitivity of QCM without coating to the five gases was 0.3386 Hz/ppm (methanol), 0.3496 Hz/ppm (IPA), 0.2624 Hz/ppm (acetone), 0.3186 Hz/ppm (DMF), and 0.4003 Hz/ppm (THF), respectively. These results indicate that the use of PAN nanofibers as a coating material improves sensor performance in detecting VOC gases, especially methanol and IPA, so it has the potential to be applied in a sustainable environmental monitoring system.

Keywords: Quartz crystal microbalance, PAN nanofiber, gas sensor, volatile organic compounds (VOC), sensitivity.

Topic: Material Physics