Detection of small concentrations of molecules in the air with an artificial nose

Detection of target molecules in the air is an important task in many fields, from safety,to security, quality control, and even medicine. There are several types of such sensors, optimized to different target compounds andto different concentrations.

An artificial nose, or e-nose, aims to mimic the nose of adog, which is known to detect and recognize great number of scents and is sensitive tominute concentrations. Ideally, an artificial nose would have one sensor per targetcompound, but clearly this is not the case as individual sensors can respond to severalmolecules. Instead, it is beneficial to use approaches of artificial intelligence to find"fingerprints" of particular scents.

In the seminar, I will present our work on an e-nose that is based on capacitive sensorswith different functionalizations. Initially, the system was developed with the aim ofdetecting explosives, such as TNT and RDX. In the ongoing project, we are aiming atmodifying the system to detect cancer based on the exhaled air.