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Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering >> 2016, Volume 10, Issue 2 doi: 10.1007/s11705-016-1570-6

Plasma-enabled sensing of urea and related amides on polyaniline

. Jozef Stefan Institute (F4), Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubjana, Slovenia.. Jozef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Jamova cesta 39, 1000 Ljubjana, Slovenia.. Centre of Polymer Systems, University Institute, Tomas Bata University, Trida T. Bati 5678, 76001 Zlin, Czech Republic.. Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty of Necatibey Education, Balikesir University, 10100 Balikesir, Turkey.. Institute of Hydrodynamics, Academy of Sciences, Pod Patankou 5, 166 12 Prague 6, Czech Republic.. Institute for Future Environments and Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation, School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland 4000, Australia.. CSIRO-QUT Joint Sustainable Materials and Devices Laboratory, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, New South Wales 2070, Australia.. School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia

Accepted: 2016-05-03 Available online: 2016-05-19

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Abstract

The atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) was used to enhance the sensitivity of industrially important polyaniline (PANI) for detection of organic vapors from amides. The gas sensing mechanism of PANI is operating on the basis of reversible protonation or deprotonation, whereas the driving force to improve the sensitivity after plasma modifications is unknown. Herein we manage to solve this problem and investigate the sensing mechanism of atmospheric plasma treated PANI for vapor detection of amides using urea as a model. The results from various analytical techniques indicate that the plausible mechanism responsible for the improved sensitivity after plasma treatment is operating through a cyclic transition state formed between the functional groups introduced by plasma treatment and urea. This transition state improved the sensitivity of PANI towards 15 ppm of urea by a factor of 2.4 times compared to the non-treated PANI. This plasma treated PANI is promising for the improvement of the sensitivity and selectivity towards other toxic and carcinogenic amide analytes for gas sensing applications such as improving material processing and controlling food quality.

Keywords

gas sensing ; urea ; PANI ; amides ; plasma

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