DEVELOPMENT OF SURFACE ACOUSTIC WAVE SENSORS INCORPORATING LANGMUIRBLODGETT FILMS

Abstract

A sensitive surface acoustic wave (SAW) device has been developed by depositing phospholipids or stearic acid onto the channel of the device. For this purpose the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique has been used to deposit an optimal numberof layers which was found to be between 20 and 40. Theaffinity of alcohols to phosphatidylcholine coated channels increased with increasing chain length. The observed differences in mass loading, however, are rather small, which meansthat electrostatic and Van-der-Waals interactions rather than specific effects determine the binding.