title: Ethanol vapor sensing properties of triangular silver nanostructures based on localized surface plasmon resonance.
abstract: A sensitive volatile organic vapor sensor based on the LSPR properties of silver triangular nanoprisms is proposed in this paper. The triangular nanoprisms were fabricated by a nanosphere lithography (NSL) method. They have sharp vertices and edges, and are arranged in an ideal hexangular array. These characteristics ensure that they exhibit an excellent LSPR spectrum and a high sensitivity to the exterior environment changes. The LSPR spectra responding to ethanol vapor and four other volatile organic vapors-acetone, benzene, hexane and propanol-were measured with a UV-vis spectrometer in real time. Compared with the other four vapors, ethanol exhibits the highest sensitivity (∼0.1 nm/mg L(-1)) and the lowest detection limit (∼10 mg/L) in the spectral tests. The ethanol vapor test process is also fast (∼4 s) and reversible. These insights demonstrate that the triangular nanoprism based nano-sensor can be used in ethanol vapor detection applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu 610225, China. wyingma@gmail.com
authors.forename: Wenying
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Huan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Weimin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
mesh_terms: D000431:Ethanol / Q000032:analysis*; D005740:Gases / Q000032:analysis*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D049329:Nanostructures; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D005740:Gases; D000431:Ethanol; D012834:Silver