International Business Machines Corporation
Adsorption/desorption-based sensor for volatile organic compounds (VOCs)

Abstract:

Provided is a system for detection and discrimination of gases, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), in a sample comprising two chambers, a first chamber equipped with a crystalline microporous material (CMM) and a second chamber equipped with a gas detector. A gas sample is introduced first into the second chamber for detection by the gas detector and is then re-routed to the first chamber for adsorption/desorption on the CMM. The gas detector in the second chamber produces electronic signals that correspond to the adsorption/desorption profile for the gas, which allows for discrimination of the gas in the sample from other possible gas samples.