Feasibility Study for the Evaluation of Chicken Meat Storage Time Using Surface Acoustic Wave Sensor

Abstract

Abstract Purpose The objectives of this study are to provide the detailed information of designing, fabrication process, and performance test results of a surface acoustic wave (SAW) sensor for evaluating chicken meat storage time (up to 15 days). Methods The aldehyde gas generated from chicken meat was selected as the reactive material, and Love wave was used among various SAWs due to its high sensitivity of the aldehyde gas particles. The SAW sensor was fabricated on the surface of LiNbO3 piezoelectric wafer with a cross-linked polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-sensitive layer using standard photolithographic techniques. To analyze the fabricated SAW sensor characteristics, the S21 parameters and base line noise were acquired by a vector network analyzer. Before measuring chicken meat gas samples, a reference gas (a mixture of 25, 50, 75, and 100 ppm acetaldehyde (a functional group with the structure –CHO, CH3CHO) and nitrogen (N2) gas) was measured to verify the reactive performance of the SAW sensor. Among the VOCs from chicken meat gas, CH3CHO was selected as an intrinsic biomarker due to its harmful effects on the human body. Then, aldehyde gas from chicken meat samples was measured and the phase changes of the response signals with increasing the chicken meat storage time were obtained by the SAW sensor. Results About − 4 dB insertion loss occurred due to the PDMS coating and the high electromechanical coupling factor of used substrate. The phases of the response signals decreased linearly with increase of both the reference gas concentration and the storage time of the chicken meat samples. The determination coefficients of the reference gas and the storage time were over 0.9. The results show that the developed SAW sensor can provide valuable information about evaluating the chicken meat storage time. Conclusion The newly developed SAW sensor clearly demonstrates that chicken meat storage could be evaluated by detecting aldehyde gas. This opens a promising research avenue to explore.