HCl gas monitoring based on a QCM using morpholine-functional styrene-co-chloromethylstyrene copolymer coatings

Quartz resonators coated with various compositions of poly(styrene-co-chloromethyl styrene) reacted with morpholine as adsorption sites were fabricated for simply but accurately monitoring HCl gas in air. The exposure of all resonators to HCl gas irreversibly decreased the oscillation frequencies, indicating that these devices can be used for one-shot detection of HCl gas. The chemical structure and composition of the copolymer affected the sensitivity. The largest sensitivity was obtained for the copolymer having 40.0 mol% CMSt composition cross-linked with 5.0 mol% DVB. The sensitivity was 0.1 ppm/Hz for 10-min sensor operation, demonstrating a ppm level of HCl detection, although great interference was produced by changes in the humidity.