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Electrospun Composite Nanofibers for Sensor Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Li Han
Affiliation:
Anthony Andrady
Affiliation:
[email protected], RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States
Kim Guzan
Affiliation:
[email protected], RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States
David S Ensor
Affiliation:
[email protected], RTI International, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States
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Abstract

Electrospun polymer nanofiber materials have attracted tremendous interest in sensor applications as their effective sensing surface area dramatically increases with decreasing fiber diameter. The highly tunable polymer composite chemistry and surface functionality of the nanofiber material provides a wide platform for exploring different applications, such as filtration media, sound isolation materials, and sensor components. This paper presents a nanofiber sensor platform device composed of electrospun polymer/carbon composite nanofibers combined with electrodes directly printed onto the surface of the electrospun fiber mat. This structure forms an integrated sensor system for detecting various chemical vapors including volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and oxidative gases. In this sensor, the composite polymer nanofibers form a chemo-resistor sensing material, and the conductivity of these composite sensing materials varies with chemical vapor exposure. The sensor performance exhibits very stable baselines with dramatically reduced noise levels compared to conventional interdigitated electrodes. Furthermore, the sensor response to different vapors shows a linear relationship between conductivity change and vapor concentration in the range of ppb – ppm for some analytes, including methanol, chloroform and ozone. The sensitivity and selectivity of these sensors to different vapor analytes will also be discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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