Self organizing map analysis of the selectivity properties of QMB sensors coated by porphyrin films.

In recent years metalloporphyrins and their derivatives have been proposed as sensitive layers for mass variation based transducers for the detection of volatile compounds. Despite the positive result obtained so far a systematic study of the kinds of interactions ruling the sensing mechanism has not yet been conducted. This paper reports on a study oriented towards a deeper comprehension of such mechanisms and it introduces a self organizing map based methodology for the analysis of selectivities.