Rapid prototyping of carbon-based chemiresistive gas sensors on paper

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 110; no. 35; pp. E3265 - E3270
• Main Authors: Mirica, Katherine A, Azzarelli, Joseph M, Weis, Jonathan G, Schnorr, Jan M, Swager, Timothy M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 27.08.2013; National Acad Sciences
• Series: PNAS Plus
• Subjects: Carbon; Gas detectors; Gases - chemistry; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Nanotubes; Nanotubes, Carbon - chemistry; Physical Sciences; PNAS Plus; Principal Component Analysis; Rapid prototyping; electronic nose; mechanochemistry; nanocarbon; pencil; gas sensor arrays
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1307251110

Chemically functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising materials for sensing of gases and volatile organic compounds. However, the poor solubility of carbon nanotubes hinders their chemical functionalization and the subsequent integration of these materials into devices. This manuscript describes a solvent-free procedure for rapid prototyping of selective chemiresistors from CNTs and graphite on the surface of paper. This procedure enables fabrication of functional gas sensors from commercially available starting materials in less than 15 min. The first step of this procedure involves the generation of solid composites of CNTs or graphite with small molecule selectors—designed to interact with specific classes of gaseous analytes—by solvent-free mechanical mixing in a ball mill and subsequent compression. The second step involves deposition of chemiresistive sensors by mechanical abrasion of these solid composites onto the surface of paper. Parallel fabrication of multiple chemiresistors from diverse composites rapidly generates cross-reactive arrays capable of sensing and differentiating gases and volatile organic compounds at part-per-million and part-per-thousand concentrations.