Development of an oil film-coated QCM sensor for detection of ß-myrcene in black pepper

Black pepper is called the “King of spices” worldwide for its spice and medicinal value. It is one of the essential commercial spices for India. Black paper quality identification and classification depend based on the presence of VOCs. p-myrcene is one of the VOCs by which the different cultivars of black pepper can be classified. A jojoba oil-coated QCM sensor (JOJ-QCM) has been fabricated. The sensor shows a sensitivity of 0.1218 Hz/ppm for the detection of p-myrcene. Moreover, different sensor characteristics like sensitivity, selectivity, repeatability, and humidity were studied to validate the sensor performance.