Combinatorially responsive, polarity-indicative, charge transfer dye-based polymer gels for odor visualization in VOC sensor array

A study was conducted to demonstrate the use of responsive and polarity-indicative charge transfer dye (CTD)-based polymer gels for odor visualization in volatile organic compound (VOC) sensor array. The VOC analytes were divided into several types of organic solvents, including aliphatic hydrocarbon (1,4-dioxane), aromatic hydrocarbons, ester, and weak acid to conduct the tests. The functional equations between the dielectric constant of solvent chemicals and δλ_max,FL of the polymers were obtained for mathematical analysis. The functional equations for P(St-co-1), P(MMA-co-1), and P(AN-co-1) gels were expressed as linear equations. It was demonstrated the use of these equations was to be useful to estimate the polarity of unknown VOC analytes. It was observed that the linear equation accurately satisfied the δλ_max,FL values.