Manifold sensitivity improvement of swelling-based sensors

The sensitivity of swelling-based gold coreorganic shell nanoparticle vapor sensors is improved manifold by cooling sensors below ambient temperature. This is due to the reduced volatility of the analyte. Sensitivity to a particular analyte scales with temperature like that of analyte's saturated vapor pressure, thus allowing quantitative prediction of sensitivity enhancement. We believe our conclusions apply to all swelling-based sensors. We show that the sensitivity of swelling-based vapor sensors increases manifold when such sensors are cooled. This is due to the reduced volatility of the analyte.