A room temperature supramolecular-based quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) methane gas sensor

A supramolecular cryptophane-A-based quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) gas sensor has been developed. Supramolecular cryptophane-A was synthesized from vanillyl alcohol using a double trimerisation method and deposited on a QCM device via electrospray method. The sensor was exposed to various concentrations of CH4 gas and other gases operated at different temperatures. The influence of humidity was also examined. The sensor's response showed that it is selective to methane gas. A fast response and recovery was observed at room temperature. Detection limit for methane is 0.05% (v/v). The mechanism of the interactions between CH4 gas and cryptophane-A was discussed preliminarily.