In this work the performance of an optoelectronic sensor system able to measure the concentration of two organic analytes, chloroform and toluene, in aqueous environment was analyzed. Syndiotactic polystyrene (sPS) in the nanoporous crystalline δ form, due to its high sorption properties towards chlorinated and aromatic compounds, was here used as sensitive polymeric layer. In particular a thin semi-crystalline sPS film with crystalline nanoporous δ form was cast on the cleaved end of a standard fiber optic and measurements of reflectivity as the analyte was sorbed by the polymer were carried out allowing on line detection of even very low concentrations (in the range of few ppm) of chloroform in water. The refractometer performance was then properly compared with that of a classical resonant quartz-crystal microbalance sensor (QCM), using the same polymer film as sensing element.
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