An Electronic Nose for Measuring Airbourne Organic Compounds

The next decade should see the arrival of a new breed of analytical instruments capable of measuring complex mixtures of gases or vapours in air. Current research instruments comprise an array of solid state chemical sensors and an appropriate pattern analyser to identify unknown mixtures. Such instruments can be used in two application areas: first to sample complex odours thereby creating an “Electronic nose” and secondly to sample volatile organic compounds (VOCs) thereby creating a chemical sensoric array device (ChemSAD). This paper describes some novel instrumentation being developed to analyse complex odours, and presents results on the analysis of malodours and organic vapours in air.