| Abstract
| - The responses relative to an air background of carbonblack/polymer composite vapor detectors have beendetermined as a function of the concentration of a homologous series of alcohols (n-CnH2n+1OH, 1 ≤ n ≤ 8),a homologous series of alkanes (n-CnH2n+2, 5 ≤ n ≤ 10and n = 12, 14), and a set of diverse solvent vapors. Inall cases, the steady-state relative differential resistanceresponses, ΔR/Rb, of the carbon black/polymer composite vapor detectors were well-described by a linear relationship with respect to the analyte partial pressure, atleast over the tested concentration range (P/P° = 0.005−0.03, where P° is the vapor pressure of the analyte). Whentwo vapors in air were simultaneously presented to thedetectors, the ΔR/Rb response, relative to an air background, was the sum of the ΔR/Rb values obtained wheneach analyte was exposed separately to the carbon black/polymer composite detectors under study. Similarly, whenan analyte was exposed to the detectors on top of abackground level of another analyte, the ΔR/Rb values ofthe array of detectors were very close to those obtainedwhen the test analyte was exposed to the detectors onlyin the presence of background air. The initial trainingrequirements from the array response output data of suchdetectors are minimized because the ΔR/Rb responsepattern produced by the analyte of concern can be associated uniquely with that odor, under the conditions explored in this work.
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