Adhesives: a new class of polymer coatings for surface acoustic wave sensors for fast and reliable process control applications

摘要

Fast and reliable on-line detection of organic vapors for control of chemical processes is a challenging application for new type of analytical instruments: sensor systems based on an array of differently selective chemical sensors. In this work we present the use of mass-sensitive polymer coated surface acoustic wave sensors (SAWs). The sensors were initially coated with a standard set of polymers consisting of a known composition. BVut this first approach could not meet all requirements. Therefore, a new class of commercially available polymer coating, namely adhesives, was developed. The coating procedure was optimized and the aging process of the adhesives was carefully investigated. As a result the selectivity for ambitious separation problems arising from similar polarity of the components of typical solvent mixtures could be remarkably increased. he system was then aplied in a real testing environment application at a chemical plant: the fast on-line control of a preparative reversed phase process HPLC (RP-PHPLC). Data from this industrial application are shown.