Method of chemical sensing using a multi-dimensional cross-reactive array

A method of chemical sensing using a multi-dimensional cross-reactive array, the method comprising the steps of:

• directing a flow path of a carrier medium carrying a chemical sample through an enclosure having open ends such that said carrier medium carries said chemical sample from one open end to another open end of the enclosure;
• disposing along the directed flow path a multi-dimensional cross-reactive array within the enclosure, said multi-dimensional cross-reactive array comprising:
• a flat sensor substrate having an upper surface of stack areas, and
• stacks of fluorescent chemical sensing polymer layers disposed on the upper surface of the sensor substrate, wherein the fluorescent chemical sensing polymer layers of a given stack are sequentially stacked such that each stack of fluorescent chemical sensing polymer layers rises from a respective stack area as a unique sequence of fluorescent chemical sensing polymer layers perpendicular to the surface of the flat sensor substrate, each stack resulting in a uniquely sequenced stack of fluorescent chemical sensing polymer layers having a respectively exposed upper sensor layer, each fluorescent chemical sensing polymer layer being respectively chosen from a group of fluorescent chemical sensing polymers consisting of Poly[2,5-bisoctyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene], Poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene-alt-benzothiadiazole), and Poly[(9,9-dihexylfluoren-2,7-diyl)-co-(anthracen-9,10-diyl)], each fluorescent chemical sensing polymer in the group characterized by a unique fluorescent emission spectrum having a distinct emission peak;
• a light source focused onto the multi-dimensional cross-reactive array to cause the fluorescent chemical sensing polymer layers to emit a respective fluorescence;
• passing via an optical system of a fiber optic guide per stack the emissions of a stack of fluorescent chemical sensing polymer layers to a respective spectrometer to separately measure spectrums per stack;
• and
• outputting by each spectrometer the respectively measured spectrums as spectrometer outputs for a computing device to collectively process select wavelength bands monitored from the spectrometer outputs and characterize fluorescent polymers in the presence of the chemical sample.