What is quartz crystal microbalance sensors?
Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) is an extremely sensitive mass balance that measures nanogram to microgram level changes in mass per unit area. The heart of the technology is a quartz disc. The frequency of oscillation can be affected by the addition or removal of small amounts of mass onto the electrode surface.
How does quartz crystal microbalance work?
How does QCM work? QCM uses the ‘piezo-electric effect’ of a thin quartz crystal between two electrodes. When a mechanical strain is applied to a piezo-electric material, this results in the generation of an electrical potential across that material.
What is quartz sensor?
Piezoelectric quartz crystal sensor is a new product of sensing technology. Quartz crystal oscillation frequency is highly sensitive to the changes of crystal surface mass loading and reaction system physical properties such as density, viscosity, conductivity, and so on, with sub-ng levels of mass detection.
How does quartz crystal work as a sensor?
6.10 Mass Sensors. QMC is based on sensing changes in acoustic resonant frequency of a quartz crystal caused by the binding of an analyte on its surface. Here, an external oscillating electric potential is applied across the crystal that induces an acoustic wave through the piezoelectric effect that resonates.
How does a quartz sensor work?
The QCM sensor is made of a thin quartz crystal disk sandwiched between two electrodes, Fig. Quartz is a piezoelectric material, i.e. a material where a mechanical deformation gives rise to a movement of charge in the material and vice versa, i.e. an applied electrical field will give rise to a mechanical deformation.
Which type of biosensor quartz crystals are used?
A piezoelectric biosensor is based on the sensitivity of a quartz crystal microbalance, which is capable of detecting changes in the vibration frequency caused by a change in mass due to the binding of a target on its surface.
What is a microbalance used for?
A microbalance is a tool used in laboratories and in scientific research with the capacity to make accurate measurements of the weight of very small objects, with a resolution in the order of a millionth of a gram. The instrument is considered to be the highest precision of all kinds of lab balances.
Who invented QCM?
Günter Hans Sauerbrey
Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Günter Hans Sauerbrey (1 January 1933 – 15 May 2003) was a German physicist who invented the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM).