Highly Sensitive Capacitive Gas Sensing at Ionic Liquid-Electrode Interfaces

Anal Chem. 2016 Feb 2;88(3):1959-64. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b04677. Epub 2016 Jan 12.

Abstract

We have developed an ultrasensitive gas-detection method based on the measurement of a differential capacitance of electrified ionic liquid (IL) electrode interfaces in the presence and absence of adsorbed gas molecules. The observed change of differential capacitance has a local maximum at a certain potential that is unique for each type of gas, and its amplitude is related to the concentration of the gas molecules. We establish and validate this gas-sensing method by characterizing SO2 detection at ppb levels with less than 1.8% signal from other interfering species (i.e., CO2, O2, NO2, NO, SO2, H2O, H2, and cyclohexane, tested at the same concentration as SO2). This study opens a new avenue of utilizing tunable electrified IL-electrode interfaces for selective sensing of molecules with a kinetic size resolution of 0.1 Å.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Carbon Dioxide / analysis
  • Cyclohexanes / analysis
  • Electrodes
  • Gases / analysis*
  • Hydrogen / analysis
  • Ionic Liquids / chemistry*
  • Kinetics
  • Nitric Oxide / analysis
  • Nitrogen Dioxide / analysis
  • Oxygen / analysis
  • Sulfur Dioxide / analysis
  • Water / analysis

Substances

  • Cyclohexanes
  • Gases
  • Ionic Liquids
  • Water
  • Sulfur Dioxide
  • Carbon Dioxide
  • Nitric Oxide
  • Cyclohexane
  • Hydrogen
  • Nitrogen Dioxide
  • Oxygen