ABSTRACT
Electronic “noses” are designed to analyze complex vapors as they exist and produce a simple output. The human olfactory system has been investigated by a number of academics worldwide for many years. Their goal has been to ascertain how the individual sensors in the human nose respond to complex vapors and whether these sensors are interlinked before their signals reach the brain. The chapter describes the main features for different systems as well as how they may be used in industry. Analyzing a complex vapor cannot realistically be achieved by using discrete sensors for two primary reasons. First, many thousands of different compounds can and do exist in the headspace different samples. Second, the individual molecules join together to form complex structures. The development of capillary gas-chromatographic has provided the flavor chemist with a technique capable of taking complex mixtures of flavor compounds, quantifying the individual components, and, when linked to a mass spectrometer, identifying them as well.
