Insights on Capacitive Interdigitated Electrodes Coated with MOF Thin Films: Humidity and VOCs Sensing as a Case Study

Christos Sapsanis; Hesham Omran; Valeriya Chernikova; Osama Shekhah; Youssef Belmabkhout; Ulrich Buttner; Mohamed Eddaoudi; Khaled N Salama

doi:10.3390/s150818153

Insights on Capacitive Interdigitated Electrodes Coated with MOF Thin Films: Humidity and VOCs Sensing as a Case Study

Sensors (Basel). 2015 Jul 24;15(8):18153-66. doi: 10.3390/s150818153.

Authors

Christos Sapsanis¹, Hesham Omran², Valeriya Chernikova³, Osama Shekhah⁴, Youssef Belmabkhout⁵, Ulrich Buttner⁶, Mohamed Eddaoudi⁷, Khaled N Salama⁸

Affiliations

¹ Sensors Lab, Electrical Engineering Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. christos.sapsanis@kaust.edu.sa.
² Sensors Lab, Electrical Engineering Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. hesham.omran@kaust.edu.sa.
³ Advanced Membranes & Porous Materials Center, Chemical Science Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. valeriya.chernikova@kaust.edu.sa.
⁴ Advanced Membranes & Porous Materials Center, Chemical Science Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. osama.shekhah@kaust.edu.sa.
⁵ Advanced Membranes & Porous Materials Center, Chemical Science Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. youssef.belmabkhout@kaust.edu.sa.
⁶ Sensors Lab, Electrical Engineering Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. ulrich.buttner@kaust.edu.sa.
⁷ Advanced Membranes & Porous Materials Center, Chemical Science Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. mohamed.eddaoudi@kaust.edu.sa.
⁸ Sensors Lab, Electrical Engineering Program, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Thuwal 23955-6900, Saudi Arabia. khaled.salama@kaust.edu.sa.

Abstract

A prototypical metal-organic framework (MOF), a 2D periodic porous structure based on the assembly of copper ions and benzene dicarboxylate (bdc) ligands (Cu(bdc)·xH2O), was grown successfully as a thin film on interdigitated electrodes (IDEs). IDEs have been used for achieving planar CMOS-compatible low-cost capacitive sensing structures for the detection of humidity and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Accordingly, the resultant IDEs coated with the Cu(bdc)·xH2O thin film was evaluated, for the first time, as a capacitive sensor for gas sensing applications. A fully automated setup, using LabVIEW interfaces to experiment conduction and data acquisition, was developed in order to measure the associated gas sensing performance.

Keywords: capacitive sensors; gas sensor test setup; humidity sensors; interdigitated electrodes (IDEs); metal organic frameworks (MOFs); porous materials; thin films; volatile organic compounds (VOCs).