Determination of carboxylic acid vapour by a thickness-sheer-mode acoustic wave sensor coated with crown ethers

The frequency response sensitivities for 39 organic vapours by thickness-sheer-mode (TSM) acoustic wave sensors coated with monobenzo-15-crown-5 (B15C5), monobenzo-18-crown-6 (B18C6) and dibenzo-30-crown-10 (DB30C10) have been reported. It shows that crown ethers are the most efficient adsorptively active material for sensing carboxylic acid vapour, particularly B15C5 can be used for sensing formic acid vapour. The B15C5 based sensor possesses good reproducibility, high stability and short response time with wide linear detection range and a low detection limit down to 0.0201 mg l(-1) (about 5.70 ppm, V/V) of formic acid vapour while coating with 12 mu g of B15C5. There is no significant interference from other organic vapours except for some nitrogen containing compounds such as diethylamine, pyridine and N,N-dimethylformamide, and carboxylic acid homologues such as acetic and propionic acids. The effect of humidity is easily controllable. Compared with acid-base titration method, the sensor can be used for the determination of HCOOH vapour with recovery rate of 98.4 similar to 103.8%, the analytical results are in good agreement with those obtained by the more time consuming acid-base titration method. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.