An electrodeless monolithic multichannel quartz crystal microbalance (MQCM) sensor was developed via the direct growth of ZnO nanorod patterns of various sizes onto an electrodeless quartz crystal plate. The patterned ZnO nanorods acted as independent resonators with different frequencies upon exposure to an electric field. The added mass of ZnO nanostructures was found to significantly enhance the quality factor (QF) of the resonator in electrodeless QCM configuration. The QF increased with the length of the ZnO nanorods; ZnO nanorods 5 μm in length yielded a 7-fold higher QF compared to the QF of a quartz plate without ZnO nanorods. In addition, the ZnO nanorods offered enhanced sensitivity due to the enlarged sensing area. The developed sensor was used as an electronic nose for detection of vapor mixtures with impurities.

Modulus-tunable microcantilevers are fabricated from magnetorheological elastomers (MREs) consisting of polydimethylsiloxane and carbonyl iron particles by using a simple sandwich molding method. Depending on the presence or absence of an external magnetic field during curing, isotropic or anisotropic MRE cantilevers are obtained. Randomly distributed particles are present in the polymer matrix of the isotropic microcantilevers, whereas the particles in the anisotropic microcantilevers are aligned in the direction of the magnetic field. The fractional changes in the resonance frequencies of the MRE cantilevers are measured as functions of the magnetic field intensity and the quantity of particles in the matrix. The anisotropic microcantilevers undergo greater changes in frequency than the isotropic microcantilevers when exposed to external magnetic fields, which indicates that larger changes in modulus are induced in the anisotropic microcantilevers. In addition, the dissipation and damping ratios of the MRE microcantilevers are determined by fitting the exponential decays of their deflection amplitudes with time.

Nanoporous anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) microcantilevers are fabricated and MIL-53 (Al) metal-organic framework (MOF) layers are directly synthesized on each cantilever surface by using the aluminum oxide as the metal ion source. Exposure of the MIL53-AAO cantilevers to various concentrations of CO2, N2, CO, and Ar induces changes in their deflections and resonance frequencies. The results of the resonance frequency measurements for the different adsorbed gas molecules are almost identical when the frequency changes are normalized by the molecular weights of the gases. In contrast, the deflection measurements show that only CO2 adsorption induces substantial bending of the MIL53-AAO cantilevers. This selective deflection of the cantilevers is attributed to the strong interactions between CO2 and the hydroxyl groups in MIL-53, which induce structural changes in the MIL-53 layers. Simultaneous measurements of the resonance frequency and the deflection are performed to show that the diffusion of CO2 into the nanoporous MIL-53 layers occurs very rapidly, whereas the binding of CO2 to hydroxyl groups occurs relatively slowly, which indicates that the adsorption of CO2 onto the MIL-53 layers and the desorption of CO2 from the MIL-53 layers are reaction limited.

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Zinc oxide nanorods were synthesized directly on a silicon microcantilever and converted into a nanoporous ZIF-8 film via a solvothermal reaction. The simultaneous measurements of the resonance frequency and deflection of the cantilever revealed that the adsorption of alcohol vapors induced a structural change in the ZIF-8 framework.