The fabrication of a MWNTs–polymer composite chemoresistive sensor array to discriminate between chemical toxic agents

• Published in: Journal of materials science Vol. 44; no. 20; pp. 5485 - 5493
• Main Authors: Chang, Chang-Pin, Yuan, Chun-Lung
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.10.2009; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Atomic force microscopy; Biological & chemical weapons; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical warfare; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chloroform; Classical Mechanics; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Detection; Dichloromethane; Dimethyl; Film thickness; Materials Science; Methyl ethyl ketone; Multi wall carbon nanotubes; Multilayers; Organic chemistry; Phosphonates; Polyanilines; Polymer matrix composites; Polymer Sciences; Polymerization; Polymethyl methacrylate; Polymethyl methacrylates; Principal component analysis; Principal components analysis; Reagents; Selectivity; Sensor arrays; Sensors; Solid Mechanics; Tetrahydrofuran; Xylene; PANI; PANI Film; PMMA; DMMP; Organic Agent
• ISSN: 0022-2461; 1573-4803
• DOI: 10.1007/s10853-009-3766-3

In this study, a chemoresistive sensor was fabricated by the chemical polymerization and coating of either polyaniline (PANI), poly[2-methoxy-5-(2-ethyloxy)- p -phenylenevinylene], or commercial poly(methyl methacrylate) on MWNTs. We investigated the resistance responsiveness of the multilayer samples to simulated chemical warfare agents, including dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP) and dichloromethane (DCM), as well as to organic agents, such as chloroform, tetrahydrofuran, methyl-ethyl ketone, and xylene. The MWNTs–PANI film was characterized by SEM and FT-IR, and the resistivity values for the six solvents were measured at different temperatures. We observed that the MWNTs-PANI sensing film exhibited a high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, and good reproducibility to the detection of all of the aforementioned agent vapors. In addition, we used atomic force microscopy to demonstrate the MWNTs–PANI absorption of DMMP vapor, wherein the sensing film exhibited a swelling phenomenon, such that the film thickness increased from 0.8 to 1.3 μm. In addition, we used principal component analysis to evaluate the performance of the sensor in detecting DMMP, DCM, and the aforementioned organic agent vapors.