NANOSTRUCTURED PARTICLES AND LAYERS FOR SENSING CONTAMINANTS IN AIR AND WATER

Chemical sensor layers for environmental applications require optimal selectivity, sensitivity, and long term stability, which can be achieved in artificial matrices. For detecting thiols in air, reversible affinity interactions can be optimized by varying the stoichiometry of molybdenum disulphide nanoparticles to achieve sulphur deficiencies. Generating MoS_1.9 increases the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor responses towards butane thiol by a factor of three. Artificial recognition sites are accessible by molecular imprinting: acrylate copolymers can be tuned in polarity to interact selectively with atrazine in water leading to detection limits below one ppb with QCM sensors. Finally, sensor arrays coated with six different molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) correctly reproduce the ethyl acetate concentration of a composter over a period of two weeks validated by GC-MS measurements.