Porphyrin nanofiber/single-walled carbon nanotube nanocomposite-based sensors for monitoring hydrogen peroxide vapor

Abstract

Detection of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is particularly important in the field of clinical diagnosis for exhaled breath analysis, because H2O2 is closely related to diseases such as cancer, traumatic brain injury, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and asthma. Considering this, development of sensors for sensitive and selective real-time monitoring of H2O2 vapor (HPV) is required. In this study, we report the design and fabrication of a high-performance HPV sensor based on nanocomposites of nanofibers of a porphyrin derivative (oxo-[5,10,15,20-tetra(4-pyridyl)porphyrinato]titanium(IV) (TiOTPyP)) and single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) at room temperature. Two types of HPV sensor transducers were fabricated using pristine SWCNTs only and TiOTPyP nanofiber/SWCNT nanocomposite and the sensor responses were compared. The significant differences in reproducibility and selectivity of the two sensors reflected the significant impact of the added TiOTPyP nanofibers on the device performance. The response of the TiOTPyP nanofiber/SWCNT nanocomposite-based sensor to 1 ppm of HPV is 9 times higher than that of the pristine SWCNT-based sensor. In addition, this sensor shows fast response/recovery times in the detection of HPV in the concentration range of 0.1–10 ppm, while showing a weak response to NH3 gas and negligible response to CO, toluene, acetone, hexane, NO, and NO2 gases.