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High-performance catalysts are crucial for many applications, including high-performance gas sensors. However, the catalysts used in gas sensors need to be screened through many experimental measurements, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. Herein, the catalytic activity of ZSM-5 zeolites with different Si/Al ratios is quantitatively evaluated using a resonant microcantilever that enables in-situ temperature-programmed desorption (cantilever-TPD) measurements. Since the frequency shift obtained by the cantilever-TPD measurement is proportional to the number of probe molecules, the cantilever-TPD experiment can successfully measure the number of active sites and desorption activation energy of the catalyst. Therefore, the cantilever-TPD experiment quantitatively characterizes the catalytic activity through the comprehensive analysis of the number of active sites and the desorption activation energy, eliminating the need for the traditional trial-and-error method to study the gas-sensing performance. According to the test results of cantilever-TPD, the ZSM-5 zeolite with satisfactory performance is preferred as the catalytic material, and the ZnO/ZSM-5 double-layer sensor is made to detect trace amounts of the greenhouse gas Freon R134a. The gas sensing results show that the optimized ZSM-5 sensor has good sensitivity, limit of detection (LOD), repeatability, and selectivity, fully confirming the evaluation results of the cantilever-TPD. • Resonant microcantilever is used for TPD measurements of catalytic-induced sensing materials. • The catalytic activity of ZSM-5 zeolites with different Si/Al ratios has been quantitatively evaluated. • ZSM-5 zeolite, with satisfactory performance, was selected as the catalytic-induced sensing material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]