High Response CO Sensor Based on a Polyaniline/SnO₂ Nanocomposite

Kai-Syuan Jian; Chi-Jung Chang; Jerry J Wu; Yu-Cheng Chang; Chien-Yie Tsay; Jing-Heng Chen; Tzyy-Leng Horng; Gang-Juan Lee; Lakshmanan Karuppasamy; Sambandam Anandan; Chin-Yi Chen

doi:10.3390/polym11010184

High Response CO Sensor Based on a Polyaniline/SnO₂ Nanocomposite

Polymers (Basel). 2019 Jan 21;11(1):184. doi: 10.3390/polym11010184.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. seed111713@gmail.com.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. changcj@fcu.edu.tw.
³ Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. jjwu@fcu.edu.tw.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. yuchchang@fcu.edu.tw.
⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. cytsay@fcu.edu.tw.
⁶ Department of Photonics, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. jhchen@fcu.edu.tw.
⁷ Department of Applied Mathematics, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. tlhorng@math.fcu.edu.tw.
⁸ Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. leeganjiuan@gmail.com.
⁹ Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. lksamylaksh@gmail.com.
¹⁰ Nanomaterials and Solar Energy Conversion Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, National Institute of Technology, Trichy 620015, India. sanand99@yahoo.com.
¹¹ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Feng Chia University, Taichung 407, Taiwan. chencyi@fcu.edu.tw.

Abstract

A polyaniline (PANI)/tin oxide (SnO₂) composite for a CO sensor was fabricated using a composite film composed of SnO₂ nanoparticles and PANI deposition in the present study. Tin oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by the sol-gel method. The SnO₂ nanoparticles provided a high surface area to significantly enhance the response to the change in CO concentration at low operating temperature (<75 °C). The excellent sensor response was mainly attributed to the relatively good properties of PANI in the redox reaction during sensing, which produced a great resistance difference between the air and CO gas at low operating temperature. Therefore, the combination of n-type SnO₂ nanoparticles with a high surface area and a thick film of conductive PANI is an effective strategy to design a high-performance CO gas sensor.

Keywords: CO gas sensor; low operating temperature; polyaniline; sol-gel; tin oxide.