Detecting Insect Infestation Using a Carbon/Polymer Composite Based Sensor Array

Abstract

A carbon/polymer composite sensor array was designed, fabricated and tested to detect volatile organic compounds secreted by plants when attacked by insects. The sensor array is inexpensive and can be used for early onsite detection of insect infestation. The array is made of chemical resistor sensors which consists of micro-electronically fabricated interdigitated electrodes, coated with carbon/polymer composite thin films that was deposited by drop casting. The sensor array was exposed and found to sensitive to a variety of chemicals including γ-terpinene α-pinene, p-cymene, farnesene, limonene and cis-hexenyl acetate. The sensor array was also able to distinguish between each of the chemicals by creating a unique "finger print" pattern with the sensor responses.