Determination of odour interactions of three-component gas mixtures using an electronic nose

Abstract

The paper presents an application of an electronic nose prototype comprised of six TGS-type sensors and one PID-type sensor to identify odour interaction phenomena in odorous three-component mixtures. The investigation encompassed eight odorous mixtures—toluene-acetone-triethylamine and formaldehyde-butyric acid-pinene—characterized by different odour intensity and hedonic tone. A principal component regression (PCR) calibration model was used for evaluation of predicted odour intensity and hedonic tone. Correctness of identification of odour interactions in the odorous three-component mixtures was determined based on the results obtained with the electronic nose. The results indicated a level of 75–80% for odour intensity and 57–73% for hedonic tone. The average root mean square error of prediction amounted to 0.03–0.06 for odour intensity determination and 0.07–0.34 for hedonic tone evaluation of the odorous three-component mixtures.