title: Synthesis and characterization of hybrid nanocomposites as highly-efficient conducting CH4gas sensor.
abstract: Functionalized (MWCNTs-COOH), non-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and polyaniline (PANI) based conducting nanocomposites (PANI/polymer/MWCNTs and PANI/polymer/MWCNTs-COOH) have been prepared in polymer matrix. The prepared nanocomposites were characterized via FTIR, TGA, Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). It was observed that the prepared conducting nanocomposites show excellent sensing performances toward CH4at room temperature and both the response and recovery time were recorded at around 5s, respectively, at the room. The PANI/polymer/MWCNTs based detector had quicker/shorter response time (<1s), as well as higher sensitivity (3.1%) than that of the PANI/polymer/MWCNTs-COOH based detector. This was attributed to nonconductive -COOH that results in a poor sensitivity of PANI/polymer/MWCNTs-COOH-based prototype. The PANI/polymer/MWCNTs-COOH nanocomposites show almost 10 time higher sensitivity at higher temperature (60°C) than that at room temperature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: aaldalbahi@ksu.edu.sa.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aldalbahi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Nanomaterials, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR 00936-8377, USA; Department of Physics, College of Natural Sciences, University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, PR 00936-8377, USA.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Norah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Alhokbany
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Eida
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Al-Farraj
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Department of Chemistry, College of Science & General Studies, Alfaisal University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Saad M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Alshehri
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: tahamed@ksu.edu.sa.
authors.forename: Tansir
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ahamad
keywords: Multiwalled carbon nanotubes; Nanocomposite; Polyaniline; Sensor