The objective of this research was to develop a surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) sensor of cigarette smoke to prevent tobacco hazards and to detect cigarette smoke in real time through the adsorption of an ambient tobacco marker. The SAW sensor was coated with oxidized hollow mesoporous carbon nanospheres (O-HMC) as a sensing material of a new type, which replaced a polymer. O-HMC were fabricated using nitric acid to form carboxyl groups on carbon frameworks. The modified conditions of O-HMC were analyzed with Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The appropriately modified O-HMC are more sensitive than polyacrylic acid and hollow mesoporous carbon nanospheres (PAA-HMC), which is proven by normalization. This increases the sensitivity of a standard tobacco marker (3-ethenylpyridine, 3-EP) from 37.8 to 51.2 Hz/ppm and prevents the drawbacks of a polymer-based sensing material. On filtering particles above 1 μm and using tar to prevent tar adhesion, the SAW sensor detects cigarette smoke with sufficient sensitivity and satisfactory repeatability. Tests, showing satisfactory selectivity to the cigarette smoke marker (3-EP) with interfering gases CH4, CO, and CO2, show that CO and CO2 have a negligible role during the detection of cigarette smoke.
Keywords: 3-ethenylpyridine; oxidized hollow mesoporous carbon nanosphere; second-hand smoke; surface acoustic wave.