Development of a New Instrumental Measurement of Odorous VOCs Based On Precise Fingerprints Obtained by a Multitude of Biosensors

Abstract

Research regarding qualification and quantification of air contaminants such as odorous compounds has increased in the recent years. This paper deals with the results obtained with a new device and shows the potentialities of the instrument monitoring method concerning odorous volatile compounds. This new instrument called NeOse is developed by a French company (Aryballe Technologies, Grenoble - France) and the improvements are being performed in an innovative research project named “Wellness & Medical DIagnostics Olfactory SEnsors” (WISE). This project is based on the combination of a skill multitude in many domains (nanotechnologies, environmental engineering, analytical chemistry, data processing…) and is thrown by diverse scientific partners and financiers. This new analytical tool can be used to identify, classify, compare, and also to visualize the odorants that are generally odorous Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).This visualization is obtained by a precise fingerprint for each odor or odorant mixture obtained by a multitude of Biosensors. The technology of this device is based on Surface Plasmon Resonance Imaging (SPRi) and is usually used for liquid samples. However, with this new approach that consists to use another matrix based on gas samples (gas or mixture of gases) analyzed in head-space, various applications could be targeted (non-exhaustive list): Medicine (diseases detection), Food industry (product quality), Daily for anosmic person (safety alarms or knowledge of their gaseous environment), And others fields. Odor measurement can be helpful for products characterization; quality control and traceability in manydomains. Actually, this device may recognize at least 300 odors and each fingerprint can be used like a visual representation of each odorous compound (each odorant).