Hydrogen gas sensor fabricated from polyanisidine nanofibers deposited on 36° YX LiTaO 3 layered surface acoustic wave transducer

Abstract

Polyanisidine nanofibers gas sensor based on a ZnO/36° YX LiTaO3 surface acoustic wave (SAW) transducer was developed and tested at different concentrations of hydrogen gas in synthetic air. Nanofibrous mats of polyanisidine were synthesized without the need for templates or functional dopants by simply introducing an initiator into the reaction mixture of a rapidly mixed reaction between the monomer (anisidine) and the oxidant. The polyanisidine nanofibers are characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Ultraviolet-Visible Spectroscopy (UV-vis). Polyanisidine nanofibers were deposited onto the SAW transducer and exposed to different concentrations of hydrogen gas. The frequency shift due to the sensor response was 294 kHz towards 1% of H2. All tests were conducted at room temperature and the sensor performance was assessed for a two day period with a high degree of reproducibility obtained.