Environmental Monitoring of Acetic Acid Gas by Thin Film Polyaniline Sensor

Abstract

The acetic acid gas, as a kind of organic pollutants, can cause severe damage to both people and materials, and has received much attention as a problem. In this paper, a QCM sensor coated with the polyaniline film was employed as a gas sensor to detect the content of the acetic acid gas. The polyaniline film was electrochemical polymerized in situ on the silver electrode surface of quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) sensor and employed as sensing film for detection of acetic acid gas. Responses of the QCM sensors coated with the polyaniline film to different concentrations of the acetic acid gas as a function of time was presented. And the frequency shifts of QCM showed a linear correlation of the concentration of acetic acid gas. The result of our experiment fully indicated that the QCM sensor with the polyaniline film appear to respond effectively and sensitively to the acetic acid gas within the range of experimental concentrations. Such sensor will have potential application in our living environment for real-time monitoring.