Surface Acoustic Wave Detection of Chemical Warfare Agents

摘要

Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) devices are potentially useful as small, sensitive chemical vapor sensors. The operating principles of these devices have been described in detail. The use of SAW devices for detecting dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) vapor has been reported elsewhere. The basic operating principle of the SAW devices is the reversible adsorption of chemical vapors by adsorbent coatings that are sensitive and selective to the vapor that one is trying to detect. That is, SAW devices act as mass sensitive detectors. The SAW device used in this study consists of an array of four coated sensor elements with each coating giving a characteristic response to each of the vapors to be detected. The coatings used for the four sensors are fluoropolyol (FPOL), poly(ethylene maleate) (PEM), ethyl cellulose (ECEL), and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP).