Abstract
To precisely control the emission limit of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) even at trace amounts, reactive nanomaterials of, e.g., carbon are demanded. Particularly, considering the polar/non-polar nature of VOCs, amphiphilic carbon nanomaterials with a huge surface area could act as multipurpose VOC sensors. Here, for the first time, a buckypaper sensor composed of oxygenated amorphous carbon (a-COx)/graphite (G) nanofilaments is developed. Presence of the oxygen-containing groups rises the selectivity of the sensor to polar VOCs, such as ethanol and acetone through formation of hydrogen bonding, affecting the electron withdrawing ability of the group, the hole carrier density, and, thus, the resistivity. On the other hand, the electrostatic interactions between the toluene aromatic ring and the π electrons of the graphitic crystals cause a formation of charge-transfer complexes, which could be the main mechanism of high responsiveness of the sensor towards non-polar toluene. To the best of my knowledge, an amphiphilic carbon nanofilamentous buckypaper has never been reported for gas sensing, and my device sensing polar/non-polar VOCs is state of the art for environmental control.
Highlights
The pollution of water streams or air is one of the most critical concerns shaping world society in the coming century [1,2]
Introduction of chemicals, particulates, or biological materials into the atmosphere via different sources brings about discomfort, disease, or death to humans [3]
Thanks to the huge reactive surface area of the carbon nanofilaments, a-COx/G buckypaper is assumed to perform as a gas purifier able to remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
Summary
The pollution of water streams or air is one of the most critical concerns shaping world society in the coming century [1,2]. With respect to gas sensors, there is a need for simple, sensitive, and stable electronic sensors, allowing for trace detection of gases, replacing the current expensive, bulky, and complicated sensing equipment In this regard, reactive nanomaterials with a huge surface area, optimum porosity, and desirable pore size that drive the chemical/physical adsorption of gases are of paramount importance [13]. As we recently showed [28], presence of an amorphous carbon phase, along with the graphitic nanodomains, enables oxidation of the CNFs and provides an amphiphilicity effect, beneficial for detection of polar and non-polar VOCs. Simultaneous detection of various VOCs, with different polarity levels, is crucially important and assures versatility and wide applicability of the sensor [36,37,38,39,40,41,42]. For the first time, interesting properties of amorphous carbon/graphite hybrid nanofilaments and their application in gas sensing and even removal of various polar and non-polar VOCs are demonstrated, Figure 1
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