In recent years, microcantilevers (MCs) have been explored—for their role as physical transducers in chemical, physical, and biological sensing systems—as part of microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS) to detect gas-or liquidphase species. 1–4 MCs respond to environmental stimuli, such as gaseous contaminants in the atmosphere or dissolved contaminants in liquids. These stimuli affect the micromechanical characteristics of the transducers, which can be monitored using optical, electronic, or other means. The response of MCs is related to changes in their physicochemical properties such as mass, resonance frequency, and energy content. Changes in the intrinsic stress and loaded mass of the MC that result from interfacial processes (ie, sorption and desorption) lead to direct, highly sensitive, and rapid detection of chemical analytes. As the size of MCs becomes smaller, their mechanical reaction may begin to share similarities with the vibrational mode of molecules. 3, 4 The responses of MCs, which are representative of the micromechanical characteristics of the cantilevers, can be measured in several ways. For example, changes in the loaded mass of cantilevers result from the uptake of chemical species present in the environment. Changes in surface area or mass loading on the MC surface can modulate surface stress because of the thin geometry of MCs, which leads to extremely high surface-to-volume ratios. If the external gravitational, magnetic, and electrostatic forces are negligibly small, the gradient of mechanical stress between the two sides of a cantilever is the only significant factor in cantilever deformation. MC bending …