Molecular imprinted polymer modified terahertz metamaterial sensor for specific detection of gaseous hexanal

• Molecularly imprinted polymer was used to modify the terahertz metamaterial sensor. • The modified terahertz metamaterial sensor can specific detect the gaseous hexanal. • The sensor has good detection repeatability and strong anti-interference ability. • The sensor can be applied in the fields of disease diagnosis at early stage. Gaseous hexanal is a biomarker for the diagnosis of human lung cancer. In this work, a molecular imprinted polymer (MIP) modified terahertz metamaterial sensor was demonstrated for specific detection of gaseous hexanal. The experimental results show that the transmission spectrum of the modified sensor has an obvious frequency shift under different concentration of gaseous hexanal. The modified sensor can detect gaseous hexanal in concentrations ranging from 100 PPM to 900 PPM with a maximum frequency shift of 12 GHz. In addition, the modified sensor has good repeatability and less response to interfering substances. This study provided a new idea for developing high selectivity gas sensors.