Sensors and Actuators B 103 (2004) 55–68 Comparative study between gas sensors arrays device, sensory evaluation and GC/MS analysis for QC in automotive industry S. Garrigues a,∗ , T. Talou a,1 , D. Nesa b a Laboratoire de Chimie Agro-Industrielle, ENSIACET, 118 route de Narbonne, 31077 Toulouse Cedex 4, France b RENAULT DIMat Sce 64160 API, TCR LAB 2 52, 1 av. du Golf, 78288 Guyancourt Cedex, France Available online 22 July 2004 Abstract Odours of new cars are important today for the consumers’ comfort. Due to the interior trim parts’ manufacturing process and to their petrochemical compounds based, many rubbers and foams used in automotive materials result in a “new car odour” mostly enjoyed but sometimes felt as unpleasant by customers. The use of olfactory sensory panels, especially trained to describe odours, is only one way of addressing that issue. Although they offer interesting characterisation methods, olfactory sensory panels may also have some drawbacks. The odours of several PVC skins were described by human assessors and the corresponding volatile organic compounds were also characterised by a commercially available Electronic Nose technique, based on QMB sensors, whereas their identification was carried out by GC/MS analysis. Finally, a confrontation of the three types of obtained data was performed and showed the existence of correlation as well as the interest of gas sensors device for automotive industry. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Electronic Nose; Chemical sensor; Automotive; PVC skin 1. Introduction Since a few years, “Electronic Nose” technology has ap- peared in a new field of application: the car industry which is confronted with a lot of polymer-based elements that con- tribute to the “new car odour”. Different types of chemical gas sensors have been already tested on this kind of mate- rials: a first generation ones like MOS, MOSFET and CP sensors [1], as well as a second generation ones like quartz crystal microbalance (QMB) and MS-based chemosensors [2]. Quartz crystal microbalance gas sensors is the chosen technology for our study. They present some advantages upon the above mentioned devices, as their smaller size. Multiple gas sensors devices, abusively qualified “Elec- tronic Noses”, have long been supposed to react like artifi- cial olfactory systems being able to mimicking the olfactory receptors mechanisms of human nose, with nevertheless a lower selectivity. ∗ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: sand garrigues@yahoo.fr (S. Garrigues), talou@cict.fr (T. Talou). 1 Tel.: +33 5 62 88 57 24; fax: +33 5 62 88 57 30. However, detection mechanisms of “Electronic Noses” are still difficult to predict. And the recurrent question remains, is to say: “Does gas sensors technology correctly transcribe the olfactory sensations perceived by human nose?” To answer this question, a sensory analysis of different PVC skins was performed by trained panel members using the olfactory referential “The Field of Odours ® ” developed by Jaubert et al. [3]. The present paper aims to evaluate the relevance of the discriminations between PVC skins obtained using gas sen- sors system. In this way, relationships between Electronic Nose measurements and sensory attributes were established and discussed according to chemical characterisation. The experimental procedure and the results obtained are reported below. 2. Experimental procedure 2.1. Materials and sampling Volatile organic compounds (VOCS) emitted from three PVC skins samples, also called coated plastic tissues, were studied by means of an “Electronic Nose” (QMB gas sen- sors), olfactory sensory analysis and GC/MS analysis. These 0925-4005/$ – see front matter © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.snb.2004.04.121