Volatile Organic Compound Detection Using Nanostructured Copolymers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cooper J ; Fedder GK ; Iovu MC ; Jeffries-El M ; Kowalewski T ; Kusne AG ; Lambeth DN ; Li B ; McCullough RD ; Revelli JC ; Santhanam S ; Sauve G ; Schultz L ; Snyder JL ; Weiss LE ; Zhang R
• Description:
  Regioregular polythiophene-based conductive copolymers with highly crystalline nanostructures are shown to hold considerable promise as the active layer in volatile organic compound (VOC) chemresistor sensors. While the regioregular polythiophene polymer chain provides a charge conduction path, its chemical sensing selectivity and sensitivity can be altered either by incorporating a second polymer to form a block copolymer or by making a random copolymer of polythiophene with different alkyl side chains. The copolymers were exposed to a variety of VOC vapors, and the electrical conductivity of these copolymers increased or decreased depending upon the polymer composition and the specific analytes. Measurements were made at room temperature, and the responses were found to be fast and appeared to be completely reversible. Using various copolymers of polythiophene in a sensor array can provide much better discrimination to various analytes than existing solid state sensors. Our data strongly indicate that several sensing mechanisms are at play simultaneously, and we briefly discuss some of them. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Occupational Health Polymers Safety
• Keywords:
  Analytical-instruments Analytical-processes Nanotechnology Organic-compounds Sampling-equipment Sampling-methods Volatiles
• ISSN:
  1530-6984
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 3 ; Pennsylvania
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  NPPTL - National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  6
• Issue:
  8
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20030837
• Citation:
  Nano Lett 2006 Aug; 6(8):1598-1602
• Contact Point Address:
  Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Chemistry Department, Robotics Institute, and Chemical Engineering Department, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2006
• NORA Priority Area:
  Research Tools and Approaches: Control Technology and Personal Protective Equipment
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Nano Letters
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:660218a6e0721947e8c997263721366be52baaffa58fc91320e7d0ecdf24a42d7b039522c976c6fb5719a5f1c07e149c7024986d9fde45494b0647141ae9f41d
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/191310/cdc_191310_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 381.12 KB ]