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PTh/PVAc composites-based sensor for CO2 monitoring

S. A. WAGHULEY1,* , R. S. BOBADE2, A. V. KOHLE3, G. G. MULEY1, S. S. YAWALE4, F. C. RAGHUVANSHI5, B. H. PAWAR1, S. P. YAWALE4

Affiliation

  1. Department of Physics, Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University, Amravati, 444 602, India
  2. Department of Physics, Prof. Ram Meghe Institute of Technology and Research, Badnera, 444 701, India
  3. Department of Physics, P. R. Patil College of Engineering and Technology, Amravati, 444 602, India
  4. Department of Physics, Government Vidarbha Institute of Science and Humanities, Amravati, 444 604, India
  5. Department of Physics, Vidhyabharati Mahavidhyaya, Amravati, 444 603, India

Abstract

Polythiophe (PTh) has attracted special interest because of its high electrical conductivity, good environmental stability, ease and high flexibility in preparation, stability and good mechanical properties. The films of composite polythiophene (PTh)-poly (vinyl acetate) (PVAc) were prepared by chemical oxidative polymerization method with the solution of ferric chloride (FeCl3) oxidant in methanol. Two sensor films of oxidant to monomer ratio 140 (PTh-I) and 150 (PTh-II) were used for CO2 gas sensing investigation at room temperature (303 K). Sensitivity of sensors at different concentrations of CO2 gas was measured. At certain higher concentration of CO2 gas, a saturation effect was observed with both sensors. The response and recovery time of higher sensitivity sensor PTh-I were found ~2.86 and ~10.5 min respectively. The films were characterized through FTIR, XRD and TG-DTA techniques which may help to understand sensing mechanism. The increase in FeCl3 increases the loading of PTh in the composite, which leads to coordination of more FeCl2 + ions with sulfur of PTh chains. Therefore effect of FeCl3 is to increase the FeCl4¯ ions in the composites. The CO2 molecules affect the mobility of FeCl4¯ ions of the PTh-PVAc surface, which results in a decrease of conductivity or an increase in film resistance..

Keywords

Polythiophe, Composite, Sensing response, CO2 gas.

Citation

S. A. WAGHULEY, R. S. BOBADE, A. V. KOHLE, G. G. MULEY, S. S. YAWALE, F. C. RAGHUVANSHI, B. H. PAWAR, S. P. YAWALE, PTh/PVAc composites-based sensor for CO2 monitoring, Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials - Rapid Communications, 4, 1, January 2010, pp.97-101 (2010).

Submitted at: Dec. 2, 2009

Accepted at: Jan. 19, 2010