Sensor array based measurement technique for fast-responding cigarette smoke analysis

The developed non-specific sensor arrays provide a simple, non-invasive technique for monitoring changes in combustion products of a cigarette. An online measurement technique that has incorporated an array of conducting polymers, was tested for continuous smoke analysis of a burning cigarette, simulating the process which a smoker performs having a smoke. On account of the large humidity concentration inside the vapour, analysis of small aerosol volumes within a cigarette puff were performed without any precondition. Therefore, the smoke was conducted from the filter side of the cigarette directly to the sensor array interrupted by reference gas flushing. The scope of the experiment here illustrated was to reproduce the classification properties of sensorial analysis and qualify the sensorial descriptor by the help of signal pattern analysis. Results demonstrate the capability of such a sensor array system to be trained according to the behaviour of a practical panel of tasters. The topography of the innovative sensors, which produce reliable signals over several months without aging, is visualized with atomic force microscopy. Therewith the molecular self-associated polymer-structures are shown. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.