Microfabricated tuning fork sensors: Chloroform in water

Chloroform in water is an environmental contaminant with health implications. Common detection methods tend to be bulky and/or expensive. We propose turning commercially available microfabricated quartz tuning forks into chloroform detectors by modifying them with proper polymer wires. This type of sensor has demonstrated its usefulness in detecting other analytes such as water vapor, ethanol, nitroethylbenzene, ammonia, etc. In addition, the proposed sensor can be quite portable, relatively low cost and with good sensitivity. With the low cost and low power consumption of each individual tuning fork sensor, an array of sensors can be readily employed to further improve selectivity and reducing interferences from other chemicals without the use of gas/liquid chromatography.