Towards the development of a portable device for the monitoring of gaseous toxic industrial chemicals based on a chemical sensor array

The ability of chemical sensor array (CSA) technology to identify multiple gaseous analytes and differentiate between various analyte concentrations has been documented. To date, CSA response was monitored using a flatbed scanner driven by a personal computer. While this system is suitable for use in a laboratory setting it is not suitable for use in the field for environmental monitoring. We describe herein progress made towards the development of a rapid, inexpensive, portable, battery-operated, handheld device based on CSA technology for the detection of toxic industrial compounds (TICs). This prototype successfully differentiates between four TICs at both permissible exposure limit (PEL) and immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) concentrations, and three interferent gases, in less than 2 min.