Abstract
Camphor sulfonic acid (CSA)-doped polyamide 6/polyaniline (PA6/PANI) composite nanofibers were fabricated using in situ polymerization of aniline under different CSA concentrations (0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.10 M) with electrospun PA6 nanofibers as templates. The structural, morphological and ammonia sensing properties of the prepared composite nanofibers were studied using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), four-point probe techniques, X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a home-made gas sensing test system. All the results indicated that the CSA concentration had a great influence on the sensing properties of CSA-doped PA6/PANI composite nanofibers. The composite nanofibers doped with 0.02 M CSA showed the best ammonia sensing properties, with a significant sensitivity toward ammonia (NH3) at room temperature, superior to that of the composite nanofibers doped with 0.04–0.10 mol/L CSA. It was found that for high concentrations of CSA, the number of PANI–H+ reacted with NH3 would not make up a high proportion of all PANI–H+ within certain limits. As a result, within a certain range even though higher CSA-doped PA6/PANI nanofibers had better conductivity, their ammonia sensing performance would degrade.
Highlights
Gas sensors are important in environmental monitoring, home safety and chemical control [1].Conducting polymers can work as gas sensors at room temperature [2,3], which is a competitive advantage compared with metal or metal oxides
The response of Camphor sulfonic acid (CSA)-doped Polyamide 6 (PA6)/PANI composite nanofibers was enhanced with increasing concentration of NH3 gas from 25 to 250 ppm operating at room temperature
When the concentration of CSA was high, the PANI–H+ reacted with NH3 would not make up a high proportion of all PANI–H+ within certain limits
Summary
Gas sensors are important in environmental monitoring, home safety and chemical control [1]. Polyaniline (PANI) is a typical conducting polymer, having distinctive redox properties, good thermal stability [6,7], controllable conductivity and an easy fabrication process [8] Due to these interesting properties, PANI has been a good potential candidate in batteries [9], electrochromic materials [10], electromagnetic shielding materials [11,12], metal anticorrosion products [13], tissue engineering [14] and sensing applications [15,16]. There are few reporting the effects of CSA concentration on the ammonia sensing properties of PANI-based composite nanofibers. For the first time, CSA-doped PA6/PANI composite nanofibers were prepared as ammonia sensors by in situ polymerization of aniline under different CSA concentration (0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08 and 0.10 M) conditions with electrospun PA6 nanofibers as templates. The ammonia sensing properties of the composite nanofibers and the sensing mechanism were studied and discussed
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
