Application of a Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) System Coated with Chromatographic Adsorbents for the Detection of Olive Oil Volatile Compounds

A sensor based on the technique of a piezoelectric quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is analyzed for the detection of six organic volatile compounds with high olive oil sensory significance, such as hexanal, acetic acid, Z-3-hexenyl acetate, undecane, 1-octen-3-ol and 2-butanone. Four sample concentrations have been exposed to each QCM sensor constructed. The detection system is based on the sample adsorption on the forty sensing films coated at the surfaces of forty AT-cut gold-coated quartz crystals. Each sensing film has been prepared with different solution concentrations of ten materials, usually used as chromatographic stationary phases. Sensing film coating process shows excellent repeatability, with coefficient values less than 0.50%. The frequency shifts of the piezoelectric crystals due to the adsorption of the volatile compounds have been measured as sensor responses, using a static measurement system. The results show that only five QCM sensors, with high sensitivity values, are enough to the detection of the volatile compounds studied. Therefore, the developed detection system presented herein provides a rapid identification of organic volatile compounds with elevated olive oil sensory connotation and it could be a substitute technique to the analytical methods normally used for the analysis of the olive oil flavor.