Electrochemical incorporation of copper phthalocyanine in conducting polypyrrole for the sensing of DMMP

Abstract

The electrochemical incorporation of CuPc in conducting polypyrrole was done in presence of cationic surfactant CTAB in order to utilize the resultant material for sensing purposes. The sensor film produced by this process on ITO shows unique flake type structure of CuPc, and they were used for the sensing of a nerve gas simulant dimethyl methyl phosphonate (DMMP), and other vapors like methanol, ethanol, benzene, toluene and hexane. The sensor-I (PPy/NaClO 4) and sensor-II (PPy/CuPc/CTAB/NaClO 4) are characterized by FTIR, SEM and EDX. SEM image shows the presence of embedded flake type structure of CuPc in the PPy and this was confirmed by EDX and FTIR analysis. The sensor-II is unaffected by the interfering vapors like ethanol, benzene, toluene and hexane even at higher concentration, which makes it more suitable for DMMP sensing in presence of them.