Mass Sensing with Damped Cantilever Beams

有一系列的应用需要识别气体和流体的组成分子。这些范围从管道和储罐中的流体纯度或污染传感器到卫星和探测器上的大气探测器。目前使用的两种主要方法是光谱学和质谱学。前者使用成像系统来识别暴露在光线下的已知分子的光谱吸收，而后者使用电电离和电磁铁来识别样品中每个分子的质量并预测可能存在的分子。然而，也有理论认为，振动悬臂梁，阻尼或无阻尼，可以用来检测任何附着物体的质量，通过比较普通梁的共振频率与具有附着质量的同一梁的共振频率。通过将流体或气体样品暴露在足够小的振荡悬臂梁中，一些成分分子会暂时附着在梁上，并充当附着的质量。由这种粘附引起的共振频率的变化可用于确定分子的质量，从而确定分子的身份。迄今为止，研究人员已经提出了在一维和二维中发挥作用的方程和方法。

There are a range of applications which require the identification of the component molecules of gasses and fluids. These range from fluid purity or contamination sensors in pipes and tanks to atmospheric probes on satellites and probes. There are two dominant methods currently utilised, photo-spectrometry and mass spectroscopy. The former uses imaging systems to identify the light spectrum absorption of known molecules when exposed to light while the latter uses electrical ionisation and electro-magnets to identify the masses of every molecule in a sample and predict the likely molecules present. However, it has also been theorised that a vibrating cantilever beam, damped or undamped, can be utilised to detect the mass of any attached object by comparing the resonance frequencies of the plain beam against those of the same beam with the attached mass. By exposing a fluid or gas sample to a sufficiently small, oscillating cantilever beam, some of the component molecules will temporarily adhere to the beam and act as an attached mass. The shifts in resonance frequency caused by this adhesion would be useable to determine the mass and thus identity of the molecules. To date researchers have proposed equations and methods which would function in one and two dimensions.