Patent ID: 7901632

Claim:
A sensor array for an artificial olfactory system for detecting various targets, comprising: a plurality of sensor elements, each sensor element comprising: a sensor body; a high surface area substrate on the sensor body and having a porous structure, the surface area of the substrate being substantially greater than the physical dimensions of the sensor body; linker molecules attached to the substrate throughout its porous structure; spacer molecules attached to the linker molecules; sensing molecules attached to the spacer molecules throughout the porous structure of the substrate; each sensor element being non-specific to the targets and responding non-specifically to many different targets, the array of sensor elements producing signatures for various targets; wherein all sensor elements are formed of the same substrate, linker molecules and spacer molecules, and each sensor element is formed of a different sensing molecule selected from a related family of sensing molecules; wherein the substrate is an aerogel or xerogel, the sensing molecule is a porphyrin, the linker molecule is a triethoxysylil, and the spacer molecule is an alkyl.