Evaluation of multitransducer arrays for the determination of organic vapor mixtures.

A study of vapor recognition and quantification by polymer-coated multitransducer (MT) arrays is described. The primary data set consists of experimentally derived sensitivities for 11 organic vapors obtained from 15 microsensors comprising five cantilever, capacitor, and calorimeter devices coated with five different sorptive-polymer films. These are used in Monte Carlo simulations coupled with principal component regression models to assess expected performance. Recognition rates for individual vapors and for vapor mixtures of up to four components are estimated for single-transducer (ST) arrays of up to five sensors and MT arrays of up to 15 sensors. Recognition rates are not significantly improved by including more than five sensors in an MT array for any specific analysis, regardless of difficulty. Optimal MT arrays consistently outperform optimal ST arrays of similar size, and with judiciously selected 5-sensor MT arrays, one-third of all possible ternary vapor mixtures are reliably discriminated from their individual components and binary component mixtures, whereas none are reliably determined with any of the ST arrays. Quaternary mixtures could not be analyzed effectively with any of the arrays. A "universal" MT array consisting of eight sensors is defined, which provides the best possible performance for all analytical scenarios. Accurate quantification is predicted for correctly identified vapors.