title: Preparation of Surface Adsorbed and Impregnated Multi-walled Carbon Nanotube/Nylon-6 Nanofiber Composites and Investigation of their Gas Sensing Ability.
abstract: We have prepared electrospun Nylon-6 nanofibers via electrospinning, and adsorbed multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) onto the surface of Nylon-6 fibers using Triton(®) X-100 to form a MWCNTs/Nylon-6 nanofiber composite. The dispersed MWCNTs have been found to be stable in hexafluoroisopropanol for several months without precipitation. A MWCNTs/Nylon-6 nanofiber composite based chemical sensor has demonstrated its responsiveness towards a wide range of solvent vapours at room temperature and only mg quantities of MWCNTs were expended. The large surface area and porous nature of the electrospun Nylon-6/MWCNT nanofibers facilitates greater analyte permeability. The experimental analysis has indicated that the dipole moment, functional group and vapour pressure of the analytes determine the magnitude of the responsiveness.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 2 Engineering Drive 1, Singapore 117576; E-Mail:  mpenll@nus.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Neeta L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Lala
authors.forename: Velmurugan
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Thavasi
authors.forename: Seeram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ramakrishna