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Novel architecture of carbon nanotube decorated poly(ethyl methacrylate) microbead vapour sensors assembled by spray layer by layer

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  • Université Bretagne Sud (UBS)

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For the first time vapour sensors were made by assembling multi-wall carbon nanotube (CNT) decorated poly(methyl methacrylate) microbeads (PMMAµB) by spray layer by layer (sLbL). This combination of materials and technique resulted in an original hierarchical architecture with a segregated network of CNT bridging PMMAµB. The chemo-resistive behaviour of these conductive polymer nanocomposite (CPC) sensors was studied in terms of sensitivity and selectivity towards standard volatile organic compounds (VOC), as well as quantitativity and reproducibility of responses Ar to methanol, water, toluene and chloroform. Results show that 3D sLbL assembly allows boosting CNTnetwork sensitivity by a factor 2 and selectivity for methanol vapour by a factor of 5. Additionally CNT-PMMAµB sensors gave responses proportional to vapour molecules content that could easily be fitted by the Langmuir–Henry-clustering model. Such sensors are thus expected to be good candidates for implementation in electronic noses.
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Novel architecture of carbon nanotube decorated poly(methyl methacrylate)
microbead vapour sensors assembled by spray layer by layer
J. F. Feller,*
a
J. Lu,
a
K. Zhang,
b
B. Kumar,
a
M. Castro,
a
N. Gatt
a
and H. J. Choi
b
Received 4th November 2010, Accepted 17th December 2010
DOI: 10.1039/c0jm03779f
For the first time vapour sensors were made by assembling multi-wall carbon nanotube (CNT)
decorated poly(methyl methacrylate) microbeads (PMMAmB) by spray layer by layer (sLbL). This
combination of materials and technique resulted in an original hierarchical architecture with
a segregated network of CNT bridging PMMAmB. The chemo-resistive behaviour of these conductive
polymer nanocomposite (CPC) sensors was studied in terms of sensitivity and selectivity towards
standard volatile organic compounds (VOC), as well as quantitativity and reproducibility of responses
A
r
to methanol, water, toluene and chloroform. Results show that 3D sLbL assembly allows boosting
CNT network sensitivity by a factor 2 and selectivity for methanol vapour by a factor of 5. Additionally
CNT-PMMAmB sensors gave responses proportional to vapour molecules content that could easily be
fitted by the Langmuir–Henry-clustering model. Such sensors are thus expected to be good candidates
for implementation in electronic noses.
1. Introduction
By definition, materials can be ‘‘smart’’ if they are able to respond
to external stimuli of their environment.
1
Although this character
can rarely reveal itself without external input, there has been
many successful utilisations of smart behaviours in the field of
sensors under different forms, fibres
2–5
or coatings. This last
category particularly concerns vapour sensors that drew some
interest since the discovery of electronic noses (e-noses).
6–9
The
cleverness of e-noses results from the fact that they are composed
of partly selective sensors associated in array. Only the compu-
tation of all signals through pattern recognition algorithms will
provide full selectivity and allow vapour identification, like in
mammal’s sense of olfaction.
10,11
During the last decades both
algorithms
12,13
and materials
14–18
have progressed contributing to
the improvement of sensors performances. Mainly two families
of materials (ceramics and polymers) are competing for vapour
sensors design, metal oxides (MOx),
19–23
intrinsically conducting
polymers (ICP) and conductive polymer nanocomposites
(CPC).
24–33
From the sensing principle point of view the classi-
fication is different as (MOx) and ICP electrical response results
from variations of their work function
34,35
whereas for CPC it is
related to changes in quantum tunnelling conduction,
36–39
although they can be combined when ICP is part of the CPC
composition.
40
The recent discovery of CNT
41–44
found to be
sensitive to vapour
45,46
particularly when functionalized with
COOH,
47
has provided a new impulsion in the development of
new CPC for sensing.
48–54
The versatility of properties by simple
adjustment in their formulation, their easy processing in the melt
or in solution, the variety of shapes they can take, and their
operability at room temperature make CPC attractive to design
sensors able to detect volatile organic compounds (VOC),
24–27,46–48
explosives,
28
nerves agent
29
or to diagnose lung cancer from the
presence of biomarkers in patients breath.
30–33
However some issues such as reproducibility and durability of
sensing properties still remain, due to the high interdependency
between the percolation state, dispersion/aggregation balance,
shape factor and interactions.
55–57
Thus it appears useful to take
benefit from tools that proved their effectiveness; first in
controlling conducting nanofillers dispersion such as surfac-
tants,
58,59
functionalization of filler
52,60,61
and second in struc-
turing a conducting architecture such as decoration,
62–70
double
filler percolation,
71,72
segregated networks,
73,74
self-assembly by
electrostatic LbL
5,63,75
or spray LbL.
25–27,52–54,76,77
In the present study, we made vapour sensors by assembling
multi-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) decorated poly(methyl
methacrylate) microbeads (PMMAmB) stabilized by poly(vinyl
pyrrolidone) (PVP) and structured by spray layer by layer
(sLbL). This process led to an original architecture built from
a segregated network of CNT bridging PMMAmB that gave
quantitative and reproducible responses A
r
to VOC such as
methanol, water, toluene and chloroform. Hierarchically struc-
tured CNT-PMMAmB sensors allowed increasing CNT sensi-
tivity by a factor 2 and selectivity for methanol vapour by
a factor 5. Additionally all responses could easily be fitted by the
Langmuir–Henry-clustering model.
a
Smart Plastics Group, European University of Brittany (UEB),
LIMATB—UBS, Lorient, France. E-mail: jean-francois.feller@univ-ubs.fr
b
Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, Inha University,
Incheon, 402-751, Korea
† Electronic supplementary information (ESI) available: TGA curves of
CNT-d-PMMAmB. See DOI: 10.1039/c0jm03779f
4142 | J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 4142–4149 This journal is ªThe Royal Society of Chemistry 2011
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2. Experimental
2.1. Synthesis of CNT decorated PMMA mbeads
Azoisobutyronitrile used as initiator was obtained from Junsei
Chemicals (Japan) and purified three times by recrystallization
from methanol before use. Poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) used as
a stabilizer had a molar mass of M
w
¼55 000 g mol
1
and was
obtained from Sigma-Aldrich (USA). Methanol used as
a medium in the polymerization and methyl methacrylate were
both obtained from Duksan Chemical (Korea). Type CM95
multi-walled nanotubes (CNT) from Iljin Nanotec Co. (Korea)
used to decorate PMMAmB have a diameter ranging from 10 to
20 nm and a purity of ca. 95%. These CNT are prepared via
thermo-chemical vapour deposition method. Prior to use they
were treated with 3 M H
2
SO
4
(98%) and 1 M HNO
3
(70%) at
60 C for 30 min in an ultrasonic bath, and then refluxed for 12 h.
After that, the mixture was filtered through 0.2 mm Millipore
poly(carbonate) membrane, and washed with distilled water until
the pH value of the filtrate was 7.0. The acid treated CNT were
dried under vacuum oven at 60 C for 24 h, thus obtaining
carboxylic acid-functionalized CNT (CNT-f-COOH). Concur-
rently, once mono-dispersed PMMAmB with 2 mm diameter were
prepared by dispersion polymerization, they were dispersed in
DI-water with CNT–COOH under ultrasonication with
a Kyungil Ultrasonic Co. (Korea) generator, at 28 KHz and
600 W for 8 h at 20 C. The fabricated mbeads were dried in
a vacuum oven at 60 C. Finally, PMMA microbeads decorated
with CNT-f-COOH (CNT-d-PMMAmB) are obtained as
described in Fig. 1 and also in a previous paper.
67
2.2. Characterization techniques
(a) FTIR characterization of CNT functionalisation. Fig. 2
shows Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra of CNT before
and after functionalization, obtained with a PerkinElmer System
2000 spectrometer. The characteristic adsorption peak at
3440 cm
1
found in functionalized CNT (CNT–COOH) spec-
trum is attributed to hydroxyl group. The band observed at 1718
cm
1
is associated with the stretching vibration of carbonyl
groups, while no obvious characteristic bands can be found in the
raw CNT spectrum. (The peak with low intensity at 3440 cm
1
in
the raw CNT spectrum is believed to be the stretching of O–H
groups of the adsorbed water.) This is because dangling bands
exist at the head end and some defects lie on the side wall of
nanotube, which are oxidized to carboxylic acid, carbonyl or
hydroxyl groups in the concentrated acid mixture.
(b) Composition checking by TGA. The thermal behaviour of
carbon nanotubes before and after functionalization is illustrated
in Fig. 3 by thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) with a Polymer
Lab (TGA1000, UK) device. The main body of CNT cannot be
decomposed below 600 C in nitrogen atmosphere. Therefore the
weight loss in the curve of CNT–COOH is due to the decom-
position of organic groups on its sidewall. The estimated
attachment content of organic groups is 13% according to the
residual weight of CNT–COOH at 600 C. Moreover, the
content of CNT in CNT-d-PMMAmB was also quantitatively
determined by this technique. Samples were heated up to 600 C
under nitrogen atmosphere with a heating rate of 20 C min
1
.
Fig. 1 a) Process of PMMAmB decoration by CNT–COOH, SEM
picture of PMMAmB (b) before and (c) after decoration by CNT–
COOH.
18
Fig. 2 FTIR spectra of raw (down) and COOH functionalised (up)
CNT.
18
Fig. 3 TGA curves of raw (up) and COOH functionalised (down)
CNT.
19
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After PMMA degradation, between 180 and 430 C, the weight
loss curve stabilized and the residual weight of 4.4% which was
assumed to correspond to the amount of CNT in PMMAmBas
the same experiment made with PMMAmB alone led to almost
no residue (see Fig. 11 in the ESI†).
(c) Optical microscopy (OM). The microstructure of sprayed
layers of CNT-d-PMMAmB in Fig. 4 was observed using a Leica
DMLP optical microscope in non-polarized monochromatic
light at 200 magnification coupled with a tri CCD video
acquisition device. For optimal observation the solution was
sprayed onto methanol cleaned glass blades and interdigitated
electrodes (IDE) at the same time. Although the magnification of
OM is quite low, this technique allows to control that the
aggregation of mbeads by sLbL is progressive and homogeneous,
not leading to supermicronic agglomerates.
(d) Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Scanning Elec-
tronic Microscopy (SEM) was further performed to characterize
the CNT-d-PMMAmB surface morphology at higher magnifi-
cations. SEM images of Fig. 1 and 8 were obtained with a Jeol
JSM-6031F with conventional tungsten cathode at 12 kV accel-
erating voltage in secondary electron image (SEI) mode.
(e) CNT-d-PMMAmB chemo-resistive sensor preparation.
CNT-d-PMMAmB chemo-resistive sensors were assembled using
a two step process: firstly 50 mg CNT-d-PMMAmB were added
to 10 ml of ethanol and sonicated for 2 hours at 25 C to obtain
a homogeneous dispersion. Secondly the CNT-d-PMMAmB
suspension was sprayed layer by layer (sLbL) onto interdigitated
electrodes (IDE) obtained by cleavage of capacitors.
7,40
The
shape of conducting tracks is clearly visible in Fig. 4 and 5.
Spraying was done with a homemade device,
25
allowing to
precisely control spraying conditions such as nozzle flow rate
(index 2), air pressure (p
s
¼0.20 MPa), sweep speed (V
s
¼10 cm
s
1
) and target to nozzle distance (d
tn
¼8 cm). In order to obtain
reproducible transducers with relatively low resistance, the LbL
process was monitored by following the evolution of electrical
resistance as a function of layers deposition. After spray depo-
sition, samples were vacuum dried at room temperature for
24 hours prior to chemical vapour testing.
(f) Dynamical vapour sensing measurement. Chemo-electrical
properties of CNT-d-PMMAmB sensors were investigated by
recording their electrical responses when subjected to 10 min
successive cycles of dry nitrogen and vapours streams. The
dynamic system consisting in mass flow controllers, solvent
bubblers and electrical valves is controlled by LabView software.
Bubbling dry nitrogen in liquid solvent provides a saturated
vapour stream, which was in turn diluted by dry nitrogen flow to
the desired concentration at room temperature. The sensing
device is presented in Fig. 5 and samples were placed in 9 cm 3
cm 3.5 cm chamber. The design of the device allows to keep
constant the total flow rate at Q
v
¼100 cm
3
min
1
, where the
analyte flow rate is set to Q
v
¼10 cm
3
min
1
,50cm
3
min
1
or
100 cm
3
min
1
to investigate the effect of analyte’s concentration.
Electrical characteristics of the CPC transducer were recorded
with a Keithley 6517A multimeter.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Characterization of PMMAmB-CNT thin film
morphology by microscopy
SEM was performed to make a fine analysis of the meso-struc-
ture of sprayed thin films. Fig. 1b shows that PMMAmB are
monodispersed with an average diameter of 2 mm diameter. The
initial smooth character of PMMAmB surface becomes fuzzy in
Fig. 1c evidencing the effectiveness of PMMAmB decoration by
COOH-functionalized CNT according to the process described
in Fig. 1a. It is clear from these pictures that carbon nanotubes
are entangled at microbeads surface, almost completely wrap-
ping them and also making possible their bridging. At lower
magnification optical microscopy (OM) allows us to image both
IDE dimension and CNT-d-PMMAmB microstructure. In
Fig. 4a the distance between two consecutive conducting tracks is
found to be about 30 mm whereas Fig. 4b shows the mparticles
density in one single sprayed layer at a comparable magnification
(scale bar is 30mm). Due to the low magnification accessible by
OM, the core–shell structure of PMMAmB-CNT cannot be
observed, but instead this technique evidence that spray allows to
well disperse CNT-d-PMMAmB on the substrate. However at
this step only a small amount of mbeads is aggregated showing
Fig. 4 Microstructure of (a) IDE mcapacity, (b) Single spayed layer of
CNT-d-PMMAmB observed by optical microscopy (OM), and (c) scheme
of sLbL 3D architecture.
19
Fig. 5 Scheme of chemo-resistive vapour sensing device.
20
4144 | J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 4142–4149 This journal is ªThe Royal Society of Chemistry 2011
the necessity for additional layers to complete the conducting
network in 3D. The assembly of successive layers on the IDE is
followed by the evolution of the CPC film resistivity that must be
comprised between 900 and 1000 kUfor optimal sensing prop-
erties. At this level of conductivity the thickness of the film is
about 2.5 mm (measured by SEM). Finally the transducer’s
conducting architecture obtained is based on a 2D segregated
network of entangled CNT coating and interconnecting
PMMAmB (not expected to be welded by more than a tiny
tangential surface due to their rather high rigidity at room
temperature), which in turn will be packed in 3D. The PMMAmB
interparticle distance is necessarily comprised between 0 (hard
sphere contact) and a couple of 100 nm as on the one hand CNT–
CNT junctions need to be separated by less than 10 nm (due to
the necessity for tunnel conduction) and on the other hand CNT
length characterized by AFM (see Fig. 12 in the ESI†) is
comprised between 500 and 900 nm. So, given that their entan-
gled structure will tend to decrease their effective length by
a factor of 3 or more, CNT must not be able to connect
PMMAmB on distances larger than some hundreds of nm as
assumed from Fig. 8. This process was found reliable for the
fabrication of chemo-resistive sensors with regular structure and
controlled thickness.
3.2. Vapour sensing properties of CNT-d-PMMAmB
transducers
(a) Chemo-resistive behaviour. In a first step the chemo-
resistive behaviour of CNT-d-PMMAmB-based sensors was
investigated by exposing them to a standard set of polar (meth-
anol, water) and dispersive (toluene and chloroform) saturated
vapours (concentration of 100%) for which solubility parameters
are given in Table 1. The resistance changes recorded during
experiments were converted into relative amplitude A
r
, calcu-
lated from eqn (1), which allows us to quantify the sensor’s
performance more easily, as it is a more sensitive and normalized
parameter.
Ar¼RvRini
Rini
(1)
where R
v
is the resistance of sensor when exposed to vapour and
R
ini
is the initial resistance in dry nitrogen at room temperature.
25
Fig. 6 shows that all sensors exhibit a strong positive vapour
coefficient (PVC) effect meaning that their resistivity increases
with analyte’s sorption and decreases with their desorption in dry
nitrogen. Such behaviour is classically obtained in percolated
CPC when solvent molecules diffusion results in the disconnec-
tion of the conducting network as described in a previous work.
54
This phenomenon generates large resistance variations as the
energy required for electrons circulation by tunnelling is
increasing exponentially with the gap at CNT–CNT junctions
according to the quantum resistive sensing (QRS) model
expressed by eqn (2).
DR
R0
¼aebDZ(2)
where DR/R
0
is the tunnel relative resistance variation, aand
bare positive constants and DZthe gap variation between two
vicinal CNT.
39
Qualitatively, Fig. 6 shows that CNT-d-PMMAmB electrical
responses are reproducible with short response time, suggesting
an easy disconnection of the conductive network and thus high
potential for the fabrication of highly sensitive sensors. A
r
instantly increases in the presence of vapours to reach a plateau
within a few seconds for all vapours except methanol for which
no equilibrium is observed within the experiment time.
(b) Selectivity of sensors towards VOC. More quantitatively,
comparing the evolution of A
r
with vapour nature shows that
methanol gives a response 5 times larger than the three other
vapours that have quite the same amplitude. This high selectivity
towards alcohols contrasts with the predictions of eqn (3) (with
n¼1) used for conventional CPC that would be obtained by
dispersing the same amount of CNT, i.e., 4 wt%, in a PMMA
matrix (Table 2). For instance assuming A
r
¼1 for chloroform
will only give A
r
¼0.155 methanol.
Table 1 Solubility parameters of solvent vapours and PMMA
17
d
T
/
(J cm
3
)
1/2
d
d
/
(J cm
3
)
1/2
d
p
/
(J cm
3
)
1/2
d
h
/
(J cm
3
)
1/2
V
molar volume
/
cm
3
mol
1
Water 47.90 15.50 16.00 42.40 18.10
Methanol 29.61 15.10 12.30 22.30 40.70
Toluene 18.16 18.00 1.40 2.00 106.30
Chloroform 18.95 17.80 3.10 5.70 79.70
PMMA 22.2 17.02 5.8 9.20
Fig. 6 Chemo-resistive response of CNT-d-PMMAmB sensors exposed
to methanol, water, toluene and chloroform vapour.
20
Table 2 c
12
Flory–Huggins interaction parameter and A
r
relative
amplitude of CNT based transducers
17
c
12[PMMA]
calculated
A
r[CNT-d-PMMAmB]
measured
A
r[CNT]
measured
A
r[PMMA-4%CNT]
calculated
Water 5.6 0.18 0.14 0.15
Methanol 1.4536 1 0.42 0.155
Toluene 0.1777 0.21 0.15 0.25
Chloroform 0.0504 0.19 0.14 1
This journal is ªThe Royal Society of Chemistry 2011 J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 4142–4149 | 4145
Ar¼aebðc12Þn(3)
Flory–Huggins interaction parameter c
12
values are calculated
with eqn (4) and summarized in Table 2, a,band nare constants.
This equation is derived from
49,79
and has been successfully used
in
54
c12 ¼VmdTpoldTsol 2
RT (4)
where V
m
is the solvent molar volume, d
Tsol
and d
Tpol
are the
global Hildebrand solubility parameters for solvent and polymer
calculated with d
2
T
¼d
2
d
+d
2
p
+d
2
h
from data of Table 1.
To better understand the reason for this deviation from
eqn (3), we have sprayed a solution of CNT-f-COOH onto IDE
using experimental protocol as for CNT-d-PMMAmB and
sensors to the same set of saturated vapour. Interestingly (Fig. 7)
the fact that A
r
for methanol is only 4 times higher than other
vapours shows that CNT-f-COOH have the same selectivity as
CNT-d-PMMAmB. Nevertheless CNT-f-COOH sensors are
more than twice less sensitive than CNT-d-PMMAmB sensors
taking for instance the response to methanol, A
r
is only 0.42
against 1 respectively. Moreover CNT were found to have some
affinity for methanol and ethanol
78
which has also been
confirmed in a forthcoming paper in which we show that func-
tionalizing CNT with COOH groups also results in the
enhancement of their sensitivity to methanol vapour. Hence, it
can be concluded that PMMAmB have almost no influence on
CNT-d-PMMAmB selectivity, which is mainly driven by CNT
affinity for analytes. Thus the most important input of building
a CNT-d-PMMAmB sensor with hierarchical architecture is the
boost in sensitivity (about 240%) it generates, due to the larger
specific surface of CNT network accessible to solvent molecules
clearly understandable when comparing Fig. 8b and c. But on the
contrary of techniques allowing to enhance transducers specific
surface by the creation of porosities resulting from solvent
evaporation,
25
the use of hard spheres (such as PMMAmB in the
present case) allows a better control of specific surface expansion
and final morphology. Moreover no contribution of PMMAmB
expansion due to solvent swelling has been evidenced, since this
would have changed the sensor’s selectivity. Fig. 8a and b show
the importance of CNT bridging between PMMAmB that can
explain the easy disconnection of the conducting network.
Bridges appear to be obliged paths for the delivery and amplifi-
cation of all sensing information through the transducer.
(c) Sensitivity of sensors to analytes concentration. Apart
from being selective towards chemical nature of VOC, CNT-d-
PMMAmB sensors give responses proportional to the amount of
organic molecules in their surrounding. Fig. 9 shows the
dependence of A
r
towards methanol concentration when it is
varied from 10% to 50% and finally to 100% (a concentration of
100% corresponds to the saturated vapour). Summarizing
maximum responses of CNT-d-PMMAmB sensor for all vapour
concentrations and types leads to curves in Fig. 10. The main
feature of this graph is that only methanol curve fits the classical
shape of the Langmuir–Henry-Clustering (LHC) model,
27,52–54
which is recalled in Fig. 10 inset. This empirical model which is
derived from classical sorption models describes quite well as
Fig. 7 Compared selectivity of CNT-d-PMMAmB and CNT random
network when exposed to methanol, water, toluene and chloroform
vapours.
21
Fig. 8 Compared CNT architectures in CNT-d-PMMAmB (a) observed
by SEM and (b) schematized (black rectangles show bridging of
PMMAmB), and (c) in CNT random network (small dots symbolize
analyte molecules).
21
Fig. 9 Effect of vapour concentration of methanol vapour on CNT-d-
PMMAmB sensor response amplitude A
r
.
22
4146 | J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 4142–4149 This journal is ªThe Royal Society of Chemistry 2011
which diffusion regime takes place in the CPC sensor: simple
adsorption, diffusion, clustering, corresponding, respectively, to
the three terms of the equation recalled in Fig. 10 inset. A look at
LHC fitting parameters summarized in Table 3 makes it possible
to finely analyse the different electro-sorption behaviours
depending on vapour chemical nature. All vapour have the same
Langmuir affinity constant that corresponds to the first step of
analytes diffusion of b
L
¼6, except methanol which differentiates
even at low vapour concentration by a larger value of b
L
¼7.7.
During the next step no big change in Henry’s solubility coeffi-
cient is observed, k
H
is close to 1, but the range of Henry’s
diffusion defined by the relative values of f00 (end of Langmuir
adsorption) and f0(beginning of clustering regime) is much larger
for water, toluene and chloroform than for methanol. In fact the
latter is the only vapour to exhibit a clustering with an average
number of analyte molecules per cluster of n0¼4. Finally LHC
parameters analysis makes it easier to understand why CNT-d-
PMMAmB reaches instantaneously equilibrium for water,
toluene, and chloroform whereas for methanol more time is
needed. In fact the clustering mode, although giving signal of
larger amplitude, also results in larger macromolecular confor-
mational changes relaxing the stresses accumulated during pro-
cessing. Thus when designing transducers for e-noses this is
a parameter to take into account when looking for the right
balance between sensitivity and stability.
4. Conclusion
For the first time vapour sensors have been fabricated by spray
layer by layer (sLbL) assembly leading to an original hierarchical
architecture with a segregated network of CNT bridging
PMMAmB multi-wall carbon nanotube (CNT) decorated poly-
(methyl methacrylate) microbeads (PMMAmB). The main trend of
this morphology is to develop in 3D the 2D CNT network
wrapping PMMAmB surface or located at their interface. This
increase in specific surface results in a boosting of conducting
network sensitivity of 240%. Interestingly PMMAmB behaved as
hard spheres not being much affected by solvents used for
sensing and consequently preserving native CNT selectivity. The
resulting discrimination ability of CNT-PMMAmB was excellent
since A
r
was five times larger for methanol than for the three
other vapours, i.e., water, toluene and chloroform. Additionally
CNT-PMMAmB sensors gave responses proportional to vapour
molecules content that could easily be fitted by the Langmuir–
Henry-clustering model. Such sensors are thus expected to be
good candidates for an implementation in e-noses.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Herv
e BELLEGOU for his contri-
bution to this work. This research was financed by a STAR
Franco-Korean collaboration program together with INTEL-
TEX European Integrated Project supported through the Sixth
Framework Program for Research and Technological Develop-
ment of European Commission (NMP2-CT-2006-026626).
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Fig. 10 Effect of analyte concentration on CNT-d-PMMAmB response
amplitude A
r
for methanol, water, toluene and chloroform vapours.
Curves are fitted with LHC electro-sorption model described in the
inset.
22,27,51
Table 3 Fitting parameters of LHC electro-sorption model for CNT-d-
PMMAmB
17
Water Methanol Toluene Chloroform
k
H
0.99 0.93 1.06 0.99
n’0 4 0 0
f’ 1 0.27 1 1
b
L
6 7.7 6 6
f00 0.04 0.25 0.02 0.06
This journal is ªThe Royal Society of Chemistry 2011 J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 4142–4149 | 4147
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... The sensitivity of the CNT or graphene-based chemo-resistive sensors can, however, be tuned by the control of the tunnel junctions in the percolated network. A first strategy consists in building a hierarchical structure of hard PMMA microbeads bridged by CNT to form a segregated network, in which the development of a high specific surface can enhance the sensitivity of CNT by 240% while keeping the original selectivity of CNT unaltered [58]. A second strategy to improve the sensitivity of the sensors consists in preventing the aggregation between nanocarbons in the conducting network by separating them with "spacers" in order to make the conductive architecture more easily disconnectable. ...
... Then, at higher contents, over several ppm, another linear range corresponding to Henry diffusion will be found and finally, over thousands of ppm, (more than 50% of saturation) clustering will take place. To describe this complete chemo-resistive behaviour on the whole range of concentrations, the LHC model can be used [58,[68][69][70]. Moreover, here, as the targeted concentrations are extremely low in the ppb range, the key point is to evaluate the limit of detection of vQRS, to be able to extrapolate the response Ar down to this value. ...
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Nanocarbon-based vapour sensors are increasingly used to make anticipated diagnosis of diseases by the analysis of volatile organic compound (VOC) biomarkers from the breath, i.e., volatolomics. However, given the tiny number of molecules to detect, usually only tens of parts per billion (ppb), increasing the sensitivity of polymer nanocomposite chemoresistive transducers is still a challenge. As the ability of these nanosensors to convert the interactions with chemical compounds into changes of resistance, depends on the variations of electronic transport through the percolated network of the conducting nanofillers, it is a key parameter to control. Actually, in this conducting architecture, the bottlenecks for electrons’ circulation are the interparticular junctions giving either ohmic conduction in the case of close contacts or quantum tunnelling when jumps though gaps are necessary. This in turn depends on a number of nanometric parameters such as the size and geometry of the nanofillers (spherical, cylindrical, lamellar), the method of structuring of the conductive architecture in the sensory system, etc. The present study focuses on the control of the interparticular junctions in quantum-resistive vapour sensors (vQRS) by nanoassembling pristine CNT or graphene covalently or noncovalently functionalized with spherical Buckminster fullerene (C60) into a percolated network with a hybrid structure. It is found that this strategy allows us to significantly boost, both selectivity and sensitivity of pristine CNT or graphene-based transducers exposed to a set of seven biomarkers, ethanol, methanol, acetone, chloroform, benzene, toluene, cyclohexane and water. This is assumed to result from the spherical fullerene acting on the electronic transport properties at the nanojunctions between the CNT or graphene nanofillers.
... Finally, based on the exponential fittings display in Figure 51.b, the precision of to be used as humidity sensor. The chemo-resistive behaviour of QRS has well been modelled in the presence of water by the Langmuir-Henri-Clustering model LHC model [351][352][353][354][355]. ...
Thesis
The growing demands for electrical energy, especially renewable, is boosting the development of wind turbines equipped with longer composite blades. To reduce the maintenance cost of such huge composite parts, the structural health monitoring (SHM) is an approach to anticipate and/or follow the structural behaviour along time. To do so, a proper instrumentation is necessary and has to be as less intrusive as possible. To this end, the development of carbon nanotube- epoxy Quantum Resistive Sensor (QRS) is presented. QRS can be as well glued on the surface or embedded in the core of the composite structure during the stacking sequence. During manufacturing, both the temperature and resin crosslinking can be detected with the change in the QRS electrical characteristics. Once the structural part is made, the effect of the external parameters (strain rate, temperature, humidity, Poisson ratio…) on the electrical characteristics of QRS has been studied. During the composite life, the QRS electrical behaviour has also demonstrate its capability to detect the initiation and propagation of damage until final failure. A non-intrusive monitoring with QRS of the structure life cycle, from manufacturing until final breakage is therefore possible.
... CNT -containing hybrid materials can be easily obtained by incorporating small percents of CNTs into a polymer, as exemplified by the incorporation of 1 % of MWCNTs in polyepichlorhydrin, increasing the sensitivity of SAW sensors towards toluene, compared to the pure polymer, but without modifying the detection of octane, because of p-p interactions [39]. Carboxylic acid functionalized MWCNTs were also used to decorate mono-dispersed PMMA microbeads (PMMAmb 2 µm in diameter) leading toa segregated network of MWCNTs bridging PMMAmB, which showed a certain selectivity towards methanol compared to water, toluene and chloroform [40]. ...
... Where, Vmol the solvent molar volume at temperature T (298 K) (Feller et al., 2011;Lindvig, Michelsen and Kontogeorgis, 2002). R represents the universal gas constant and 6 is 0.6, the universal parameter used for solutions containing acrylates and acetates (Lindvig, Michelsen and Kontogeorgis, 2002). ...
Conference Paper
Diseases caused by the direct and indirect exposure to waterborne pathogens, pose a serious threat to human health. Such microorganisms spread in a non-uniform manner in water supplies and are extremely difficult to eradicate. This research focuses on the manufacture of antimicrobial fibrous membranes to be used in water filtration systems at the point-of-use. In this thesis a cross-disciplinary approach was taken, using knowledge from material science and microbiology, to investigate the antimicrobial activity of tellurium, tungsten, tungsten oxide, tungsten carbide, copper-silver, copper-zinc, graphene oxide nanosheets and graphene nanoplatelets against bacterial and viral microorganisms. By varying the nanomaterial concentration, the agents showed dose-dependent microbicidal characteristics. Carbonaceous based nanomaterials exhibited the strongest potency with a minimum inhibitory concentration of 2 w/v%. At this concentration graphene oxide nanosheets and graphene nanoplatelets killed 96.1 ±4.4% and 63.1 ±4.4% of Escherichia coli populations, respectively, 99% of Staphylococcus aureus populations and 100% of bacteriophage T4 populations. Both copper-based intermetallic materials also showed antimicrobial activity, with copper-silver nanoparticles deactivating 99.0 ±2.2% of E. coli, 75.4 ±1.0% of S. aureus and 100% of bacteriophage T4 populations at 2 w/v%, and copper-zinc nanoparticles deactivating 98.1 ±1.7 % of E. coli, 90.1 ±3.8% of S. aureus and 96.9 0.3±% of bacteriophage T4 populations at 2 w/v%. The solubility and spinnability of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) in seven different organic solvents was investigated using theoretical and experimental techniques. The effect of applied pressure on the formed fibres was also investigated. Halogenated solvents were identified as the most favourable for the dissolution of PMMA. Increasing the applied pressure was shown to alter fibre morphology and surface pore size as a trade-off between pore formation and solvent evaporation was identified. Pressurised gyration of 20 w/v% PMMA in chloroform at maximum speed and 0.1 MPa applied pressure was outlined as optimal as it yielded fibres with a diameter of 3.3 ±1.2 µm and average surface pore size of 126 ±18 nm. Graphene oxide nanosheets and graphene nanoplatelets were incorporated into PMMA fibres at four different concentrations and their antimicrobial properties were assessed. Fibre morphology was found to be influenced by nanoparticle concentration, as a positive correlation between nanoparticle loading and fibre diameter was observed. Of the prepared composite fibres, 8 wt% graphene oxide/PMMA fibres were found to have the strongest antimicrobial activity as they deactivated 85 ±20% of the E. coli, 95 ±3% of the S. aureus and 39 ±1% of the bacteriophage T4 populations following 24 hours of exposure. These fibres were characterised using Scanning Electron Microscopy, Raman mapping, Fourier Transform Infrared and Stimulated Raman Spectroscopy to confirm the presence of graphene oxide nanosheets on the fibre surface. Microbial cytotoxicity was attributed to oxidative stress, as demonstrated by reactive oxygen species studies. The microbial filtration efficiency of 8 wt% graphene oxide/PMMA fibrous membranes to decontaminate water at the point-of-use was studied. Results showed the membranes to deactivate 83.8 ±1.2% of Gram-negative bacteria, 95.0 ±2.5% Gram-positive bacteria and 32.1 ±2.9% of virions. This thesis shows the implementation of nanocomposite fibrous filter membranes as a viable solution to waterborne diseases.
... The corresponding functional materials include semiconducting metal oxide, ceramics, organic and inorganic solid electrolytes, conductive polymer composites (CPCs), and so on (Chen and Lu 2005;Traversa 1995;Yamazoe and Shimizu 1986). Among them, CPCs containing electrically conductive fillers and insulating polymer matrix are receiving burgeoning research interest as alternative candidates, arising from their advantages of sensitive resistive change, light weight, low cost, and ease of processing (Adhikari and Majumdar 2004;Barkauskas 1997;Bouvree et al. 2009;Castro et al. 2011;Covington et al. 2001;Feller et al. 2011;Jiang et al. 2014;Liu et al. 2018;Ren et al. 2018;Pang et al. 2013;Parikh et al. 2006;Xu et al. 2016a;Xu et al. 2016b;Yun and Kim 2010;Zhu et al. 2019a). For example, a conductivity change from 0.36 to 0.21 S/cm was obtained in single walled carbon nanotube (CNT)/ poly(ethylene terephthalate) sensor upon exposure to water at 10,000 ppm (Parikh et al. 2006). ...
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Full-text available
It is a long-standing issue to develop conductive polymer composites as humidity sensor with rapid response, high reproducibility and good long-term stability. Herein, a simple, efficient, and environmentally benign strategy was proposed to fabricate highly porous, robust and conductive cellulose composite aerogels. Owing to the intrinsic high specific surface area and well-defined electrically conductive network, the as-prepared cellulose composite aerogels were highly sensitive to water vapor with a relative resistance response value of as high as ~ 1000% at a CNT loading of 0.19 vol%. The dense hydrogen bonding network endowed high reproducibility and good long-term stability to cellulose composite aerogels. Moreover, a significant improvement in the mechanical properties of cellulose composite aerogels was achieved, outperforming neat cellulose aerogel with the increments of ~ 149.2% and ~ 242.1% in compressive strength and modulus, respectively. The green, robust, highly sensitive cellulose composite aerogels are in great potential need as humidity sensors in biology and automated industrial processes. Graphic abstract
Article
Full-text available
The use of emulsions as templates for nanomaterial assembly is a versatile method to create controlled microstructures. However, production rates are often low, particularly where the droplet phase solvent must be removed to achieve consolidation. Here, the emulsion templated fabrication of microparticles from multi‐walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) is studied. As an exemplar primary nanoparticle for microparticle assembly, CNTs present particular challenges due to their strong inter‐particle interactions and limited dispersion in solvents. Nevertheless, small batches of CNT microparticles have demonstrated promising performances in energy storage, environmental remediation, and sensing due to their controlled structures. Improving CNT microparticle production through emulsion processing is therefore interesting to promote these real‐world applications. In this work, it is shown that the slow rate of CNT microparticle formation from water‐in‐oil emulsions is due to spontaneous emulsification. Then methanol‐in‐oil emulsions are tested, which rapidly form fragile CNT capsules. Using mixtures of methanol and water, a faster rate of solvent loss can be balanced alongside nanoparticle assembly; CNT microparticle formation is up to twice as fast using 40% methanol compared to aqueous dispersions. In addition to facilitating faster CNT microparticle production, these findings offer more broadly applicable insights into the mechanisms of solvent transport in emulsions. Well‐defined carbon nanotube (CNT) microstructures are desirable materials compared to unstructured CNT powders. Here, spherical, monodisperse microparticles composed entirely of CNTs are assembled inside emulsion droplets acting as soft templates. By mixing methanol and water in the dispersed phase, precise control over microparticle structures is demonstrated, and a balance between fast droplet drying rates and emulsion stability is achieved.
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Developing efficient sensing materials with superior sensing capabilities of sensitive, fast, selective detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is necessary for fields like environmental gas monitoring and non-invasive disease diagnosis. Recently, carbon nanotubes, graphene, MXene, and other carbon-based nanomaterials have been paid much attention for possible use as high-performance VOCs sensing materials due to unique physical structures and excellent electric properties. The tunability of the chemical character and surface properties of the carbon-based nanomaterials increases their potential in constructing selective sensors targeting VOCs gases. Besides, the mechanical flexibility of the carbon-based nanomaterials allows the new designs of gas sensing platforms and puts the carbon-based nanomaterials at the forefront of other sensing materials for wearable applications. In this review, we highlight the most recent progress of the carbon-based nanomaterials in the detection of VOCs gases with an emphasis on the available strategies for the construction of these VOCs gas sensors. These strategies are proved by addressing some representative paradigms, and their suitability in applications like environmental gas monitoring and non-invasive disease diagnosis is assessed. This review is intended to offer timely sources of information and provide insight for future research works on designing high-performance VOCs gas sensors by utilizing carbon-based materials.
Chapter
Electrically conductive polymer composites (CPCs) fabricated by incorporating conductive nanofillers (e.g. metal nanoparticle, carbon nanotube (CNT), and graphene) into polymer matrices have become the promising candidates for wearable electronics and electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding due to their excellent flexibility, light weight, low cost, controllable conductivity, and easy processing. In this chapter, the development of CPCs and their application in sensors are introduced, and the content mainly includes fabrication techniques, morphologies, properties, and sensor applications. The effects of fabrication methods on the microstructure and electrically conductivity of the CPCs are discussed. The CPCs based strain sensor, pressure sensors, gas sensors, and temperature sensors are introduced and the relationship between the sensing performance and the evolution of conductive network is also investigated. Finally, the challenges and prospects for CPCs are proposed.
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The electrical conductivity of polymer/multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) composites in a powder and in a hot-pressed compacted state, prepared by mechanical mixing, was studied. The semicrystalline ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE) was used as a polymer matrix. The data clearly evidence the presence of a percolation threshold φc at a very small volume fraction of the MWCNTs φ in a polymer matrix, φc ≈ 0.0004-0.0007. The ultralow percolation threshold in UHMWPE/MWCNTs thermoplastic composites was explained by high aspect ratio of the nanotubes and their segregated distribution inside the polymer matrix. The method of composite preparation effects the values of percolation threshold concentration φc and critical exponent t. A noticeable positive temperature coefficient of resistivity (PTC effect) was observed in the region of temperatures higher than melting point. It was explained by influence of thermal expansion of the polymer matrix and independence from the melting process that is a result of specific structure of conductive phase. © 2006.
Conference Paper
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We have investigated different strategies to control conductive network structuring in conductive polymer nanocomposites (CPC). Exclusion volumes, specific adsorption, and solvent evaporation were used to confine conducting nanofillers. This was found to be necessary to obtain samples with reproducible and stable characteristics for the development of vapor and temperature sensors or self regulated heating elements. Promising results are obtained combining nano and micro fillers by double filler percolation. The addition of 10% of rubber micro particles into polycarbonate-carbon black CPC allows decreasing the percolation threshold from 15 to 5%v/v whereas adding 30%v/v of BN into syndiotactic polystyrene/polyethylene-carbon black CPC decreases the thermal gradient under a heat flow of 1200W.m-2 by a factor 3.
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Four kinds of representative explosives were measured by the gas sensor arrays, which were composed of eighteen doped nano-ZnO thick film sensors. Using static and dynamic sampling methods to exam the detection ability of the sensor arrays. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA) were used in the data analysis and pattern recognition. Static sampling method shows that the sensor arrays are sensitive to the four explosives with different concentrations. The results show that the detection concentration of NH 4NO3, mineral explosive and picric acid are low to 3. 34 μg/L and that of DNT is low to 83. 3 μg/L under the laboratory conditions; Dynamic sampling method shows that all the samples can be identified completely in milligram level when extracting extremum as the feature to PCA and CA analysis. This work indicates the potential applications of the electronic nose for analyzing and identifying the explosives.
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This highlight aims to report electrorheological (ER) materials in state-of-the art polymeric particles and their various nanocomposites with clay, mesoporous inorganics and carbon nanotubes along with their potential application. ER fluids, suspensions of these particles having higher dielectric constant or electrical conductivity than the low-viscosity fluids in which they are suspended, are currently regarded as a smart/intelligent material, because their structural and rheological properties can be systematically tuned by controlling electric field strengths. In this highlight, various conducting polymers, including polyaniline, polypyrrole, poly(p-phenylene), poly(naphthalene quinone) and copolyaniline, are introduced and different types of polymer nanocomposites are emphasized. Flow curves for shear stress of the ER fluids are also examined.
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A shadow-masked electrospray method was used to fabricate a high performance carbon black–poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (CB–PVP) composite sensor on a position-selected area of a sensor substrate. This new approach, when compared to the common drop-casting method, was shown to be much advantageous for the preparation of an active layer with optimum average thickness and porous microstructure, which is important to obtain high sensitivity and fast detection times. The thickness obtained was proportional to the electrospray scan number, and the field-assisted generation of small droplets led to the formation of rough, porous microstructures. The CB content-dependent variation in sensor resistance exhibited percolation behavior with an abrupt decrease in the specific middle region with increasing CB content. The most sensitive methanol detection was observed for sensors with slightly larger CB content rather than that of the most rapidly varying midpoint in a percolation curve, which was probably due to increased susceptibility to noise resulting from high porosity. Polymer concentration was also observed to have a significant effect on sensing properties owing to a change in film morphology: the optimum concentration was approximately 0.25%, at which the conditions were suitable for the formation of a porous, sensitive sensor with a reasonable deposition speed.
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The olfactory bulb is able to enhance the contrast between odor representations through a combination of excitatory and inhibitory circuits. Inspired by this mechanism, we propose a new Hebbian/anti-Hebbian learning rule to increase the separability of sensor-array patterns in a neurodynamics model of the olfactory system: the KIII. In the proposed learning rule, a Hebbian term is used to build associations within odors and an anti-Hebbian term is used to reduce correlated activity across odors. The KIII model with the new learning rule is characterized on synthetic data and validated on experimental data from an array of temperature-modulated metal-oxide sensors. Our results show that the performance of the model is comparable to that obtained with Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA). Furthermore, the model is able to increase pattern separability for different concentrations of three odorants: allyl-alcohol, tert-butanol, and benzene, even though it is only trained with the gas sensor response to the highest concentration.
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In this work, we produce thin composite films characterized by different grade of dispersion of carbon black in polymer matrix (Poly(methyl-methacrylate) and Poly(2 hydroxy-ethyl-methacrylate)). These samples are obtained changing some process parameters (viscosity of polymer solution and type of spinning deposition) or using different conductive filler types. We have used different fillers all made of carbon, but with different particle sizes (from micrometers to nanometers), structure and chemical functionalization. In order to improve the dispersion of the filler in the polymeric solution, we have modified commercial carbon black by a Fenton type oxidation. Size distribution of filler in polymer suspension and deposition method strongly influences homogeneity and conductivity of corresponding polymer composite films and finally their sensing properties. We study filler dispersion by dynamic light scattering, optical and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). This has allowed investigating about the influence of different fabrication parameters on film morphologies (homogeneity, grade of filler dispersion, size of filler aggregates) and conductivity. Testing to different VOCs the sensor devices will show the influence of different morphology on the characteristics of the sensors responses.
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The performance of any electronic nose is ultimately determined by the properties of its constituent parts (e.g., the sensors, signal processing and pattern-recognition engine). Electronic noses currently exploit the technologies of several classes of sensor material (e.g. semiconductinng oxide, conducting polymer, phthalocyanines and lipid coatings) as well as a variety of pattern-recognition paradigms (e.g. back-propagation, self-organizing map and discriminant function analysis). Consequently, there is a need to compare objectively the performance of the increasing number of both research and commercial electronic noses. This paper addresses this problem and suggests the need for odour standards to quantify both the ability of an electronic nose to discriminate between similar odours (i.e. its ‘resolving power’) and a number of dissimilar odours (i.e. its ‘range’). We present a generic model from which we can define these two fundamental parameters, and hence develop a benchmark for the performance of these different electronic noses against two proposed odour standards. This model can be employed not only as a design tool to predict the performance of an electronic nose against an odour standard, but also as a diagnostic tool that can determine, for example, the effect of random errors in the sampling method, sensor characteristics or the effect of systematic errors associated with sensor drift or changes in ambient temperature. We believe that our definition of odour standards and performance parameters for electronic noses could be used to create a European standard, which is now required in this rapidly expanding field and marketplace.