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Chemosensors
Special Issues
Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds in Complex Mixtures
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Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds in Complex Mixtures

A special issue of Chemosensors (ISSN 2227-9040). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Chemical Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2025 | Viewed by 2217

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lauryn E. DeGreeff

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Global Forensic and Justice Center, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Interests: VOC detection; VOC mixture characterization; canine detection
Dr. Kevin Johnson

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Chemistry Division, US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA
Interests: chemometric analysis; multisensor system design; sensor array optimization and quality metrics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Natural olfactory systems have remarkable selectivity and sensitivity, allowing them to navigate chemical sensing tasks in a complex world. While many have tried to replicate animal olfaction for the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), it is immensely challenging to replicate such selectivity. In particular, chemosensor-based systems can often exhibit disappointing performances as they move from initial testing in simplified laboratory environments to sensing tasks occurring in a more complex chemical world due to unanticipated interferences and environmental conditions.

This Special Issue of Chemosensors, entitled “Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds in Complex Mixtures”, seeks contributions that contemplate the analysis of complex mixtures or detection in a complex background. Authors are invited to submit papers that describe detection efforts in complex real-world environments or methods of analysis, detection and characterization of complex VOC mixtures. Papers may cover topics such as the use of sensor arrays, determination of target analytes from complex mixtures, novel sensing and analytical instrumentation for complex environments, and bio-, biomimetic and animal chemical sensing in real-world or complex environments.

Dr. Lauryn E. DeGreeff
Dr. Kevin Johnson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Chemosensors is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • volatile organic compounds
  • complex mixtures
  • sensor arrays
  • machine olfaction
  • sensor validation
  • novel analytical instrumentation
  • novel sensing materials

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

11 pages, 1227 KiB  
Article
Sampling and Comparison of Extraction Techniques Coupled with Gas Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) for the Analysis of Substrates Exposed to Explosives
by Himanshi Upadhyaya, Alexis J. Hecker and John V. Goodpaster
Chemosensors 2024, 12(12), 251; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemosensors12120251 - 29 Nov 2024
Viewed by 1188
Abstract
Explosive-detecting canines (EDCs) show high sensitivity in detecting explosives that they are trained to detect. The ability of canines to detect explosive residues to the parts per trillion level can sometimes result in nuisance alerts. These nuisance alerts can occur when various materials [...] Read more.
Explosive-detecting canines (EDCs) show high sensitivity in detecting explosives that they are trained to detect. The ability of canines to detect explosive residues to the parts per trillion level can sometimes result in nuisance alerts. These nuisance alerts can occur when various materials (i.e., substrates) are exposed to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in explosive mixtures, leading to contamination—the unintended absorption or adsorption of VOCs by the substrate. Chemical constituents such as taggant, plasticizer, and residual solvent in explosives are often composed of VOCs that canines are trained on to detect explosives. Composition C-4 (C4) is a common explosive that EDCs are trained to detect and hence is this study’s focus. Common VOCs of interest emitted from C4 include 2,3-dimethyl-2,3-dinitrobutane (DMNB), 2-ethyl-1 hexanol (2E1H), and cyclohexanone. In this study, we developed a protocol for comparing different substrates such as cotton, cardboard, wood, sheet metal, and glass that were exposed to volatiles from C4. 1-bromooctane (1-BO) was used as a single-odor compound to compare the complex odor originating from C4. Triplicates of substrates such as cotton, wood, cardboard, sheet metal, and glass were exposed to 1 g of C4 in a paint can for one week and the substrates were then extracted using various extraction methods such as liquid injection, direct SPME, and headspace analysis coupled with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. An extraction time study was performed to determine the optimal extraction time for SPME analysis, and it was found to be 20 min. Comparison of extraction methods revealed that SPME surpassed other techniques as DMNB was found on all substrates using SPME. It was observed that porous substrates such as wood and cardboard have a higher retention capacity for volatiles in comparison to non-porous substrates such as sheet metal and glass. Finally, swabbing was evaluated as a sampling technique for the substrates of interest and the extracts were analyzed using the total vaporization–solid phase microextraction (TV-SPME) technique. No volatiles associated with C4 were identified on conducting a GC-MS analysis, suggesting that swabbing is not an ideal technique for analysis of substrates exposed to C4. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Detection of Volatile Organic Compounds in Complex Mixtures)
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