Enhanced sensor functionality of

Polyaniline/SnO2-ZnO hybrid
nanofibers for chemical vapors

By:
Akshaya S. Kothare
M.Sc. 2nd year
Department of Physics
RTM Nagpur
University,Nagpur-33

Under Guidance of :
Dr. S.B. Kondawar

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Content:

• Introduction

• Synthesis

• Result and discussion

• Conclusion

• References

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INTRODUCTION

3
Introduction:

Vapor Sensing
• Vapor sensors have been widely used in a wide range of
areas, such as chemical, biomedical, and food industries,
wine-quality monitoring, environmental safety, etc.

• These sensors are very essential for human safety and

controlling environmental damage.

• Vapor sensor is used to detect any chemical leak in the

form of vapor and interface with a control system so a
process can be automatically shut down.

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Introduction:

Chemical Vapors

Hydrogen Chloride(HCl)

Ammonia(NH3)

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Introduction:

Hydrogen Chloride (HCl)

• At room temperature : it is a colorless gas

• Forms white fumes of hydrochloric acid upon

contact with atmospheric water vapor

• Important in technology and industry

6
Introduction:

Inhalation of the HCl fumes can

cause:

coughing inflammation of pulmonary

the nose, throat, edema
and upper
respiratory tract

circulatory
choking system failure
and death

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Introduction:

Ammonia (NH3)

• Compound of nitrogen and hydrogen

• Colourless gas with a characteristic pungent smell
• Common nitrogenous waste

• A building block for the synthesis of many

pharmaceutical products
• Used in many commercial cleaning products

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Introduction:
Inhalation of the Ammonia
Vapors can cause:
coughing, respiratory
and nose and distress or
throat failure.
irritation burning of the
nose, throat and
respiratory tract.

bronchiolar
and alveolar fatigue
edema

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Introduction:

Metal Oxides
• Semiconducting metal oxides with
nanostructures as gas sensing materials have
been widely used in detection of toxic gases
and vapors

• However, the major problems associated with

these gas sensors are their unsatisfactory
selectivity and long-term stability

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Introduction:

• The use of metal oxide composites or mixtures

of metal oxides can however, lead to novel
materials that display many of highly
desirable properties such as:

 Improved sensitivity
 Enhanced adsorption ability
 High thermodynamic stability

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Introduction:
Tin oxide(SnO2)
• SnO2 is an oxygen-deficient n-type
semiconductor.
• Interesting physicochemical properties
including high response, high stability,
reactivity to reducing gases and also low
production cost.
• Band gap: 3.6 eV
Zinc oxide (ZnO)
• The native doping of the semiconductor
due to oxygen vacancies or zinc
interstitials is n-type
• High electron mobility, wide bandgap
• Band gap:3.4 eV
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Introduction:

But, the high operating

temperature (200-400 C) ̊ of
these sensors may be
inadequate for many
applications due to the
danger of explosions.

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Introduction:
 Conducting Polymers : Polyaniline (PANI)

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Introduction:
Polyaniline (PANI)
• A potential material for vapor sensing, due to its
controllable electrical conductivity, environmental stability
and interesting redox properties associated with the chain
nitrogen’s.

• Charge delocalization can offer multiple active sites on its

backbone for the adsorption and desorption of vapors.

• Hybridization of metal oxide and conducting polymer i.e.

ZnO/PANI and SnO2-ZnO/PANI could improve the
properties of pure metal oxides or conducting polymers
based vapor sensor by operating at room temperature.

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Introduction:
Nanofibers (1Dimensional)
• Diameter around billionth of a
meter
• Large surface area to volume
ratio, high porosity
• Nanofibers (1D) could efficiently
transport electrical carriers along
one controllable direction make
these suitable for moving charges
in integrated nanoscale systems.
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Introduction:
Nanofiber Production Techniques

17
Introduction:

Electrospinning:
Electrospinning is an
effective approach to
fabricate long polymer
fibers with diameter
from micrometers
down to 100 nm or even
a few nanometers by
using strong
electrostatic forces

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Introduction:
Laboratory Set-up of Electrospinning Technique for
nanofibers

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SYNTHESIS

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Synthesis:
ZnO nanofibers SnO2-ZnO nanofibers
2g Zinc Acetate +5ml DMF 2g Zinc Acetate+0.5g SnCl2
+5ml ethanol 2H2O+5ml DMF +5ml Ethanol
Stirring for 1 hour at Stirring for 1 hour at
50ºC 50ºC

1g PVP 1g PVP
Stir overnight at Stir overnight at
R.T. R.T.

Electrospinning Electrospinning

Drying overnight Drying overnight

Fibers were peeled off and Fibers were peeled off

calcined at 300ºC and calcined at 300ºC

ZnO Nanofibers SnO2-ZnO nanofibers

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Synthesis:
ZnO/PANI SnO2-ZnO/PANI
100 ml DW+0.5M CSA 100 ml DW+0.5M CSA

50 ml 50 ml 50 ml 50 ml
solution solution solution solution

0.2 M Aniline 0.2 M APS 0.2 M Aniline 0.2 M APS

Mix aniline solution and APS Mix aniline solution and APS
solution drop wise and dip solution drop wise and dip
nanofibrous film of pure ZnO in it nanofibrous film of pure SnO2-ZnO
in it

ZnO/PANI SnO2-ZnO/PANI
nanofibrous film nanofibrous film

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Result and Discussion

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Result and Discussion
SEM image of pure ZnO and ZnO/PANI nanofibers

The SEM images show smooth fibers with several millimetres length and an
average diameter in the range of about 200 nm of pure ZnO nanofibers
and diameter increased when PANI is encapsulated i.e. 800 nm
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Result and Discussion
SEM image of SnO2-ZnO and SnO2-ZnO/PANI nanofibers

SEM images of SnO2-ZnO composite nanofibers shows smooth edges

and larger diameter around 370 nm compared with pure ZnO
nanofibers and diameter of SnO2-ZnO/PANI composite is increased
and found to be 815 nm
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Result and Discussion
EDX Spectra of pure ZnO, SnO2-ZnO,
ZnO/PANI and SnO2-ZnO/PANI nanofibers

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Result and Discussion
UV-VIS Spectra of ZnO/PANI and
SnO2-ZnO/PANI composite nanofibers

The peak at 288 nm in UV region is due to the ∏-∏* transition of benzenoid

ring; the peak at wavelength 367 nm, is due to the polaron– ∏* transition and
the peak at wavelength 600 nm, is attributed to the ∏–polaron transition. In
addition, the peaks at wavelength 367 and 600 nm in the visible region arise
owing to the doping level and the formation of polarons.
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Result and Discussion
Resistance-Time graph of (a) ZnO/PANI and
SnO2-ZnO/PANI nanofibers at room
temperature

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Result and Discussion
Sensing parameters for composite nanofibers at
Room Temperature for HCl and Ammonia vapors
sensing at 100 ppm

Parameters ZnO/PANI SnO2-ZnO/PANI

HCl NH3 HCl NH3
Response (R) 0.21 0.8 1 0.84
Response Time (sec) 59 70 42 70
Recovery Time (sec) 505 212 29 182
SnO2-ZnO/PANI shows high response and low
response & recovery time as compared to
ZnO/PANI

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 Conclusion:

• The pure ZnO, SnO2-ZnO, ZnO/PANI and

SnO2-ZnO/PANI nanofibers were successfully fabricated
via electrospinning and oxidative polymerization in
chemical bath deposition technique.
• The as-fabricated SnO2-ZnO/PANI sensor has shown
high response, high conductivity, short response
and recovery time at room temperature than
ZnO/PANI.
• SnO2-ZnO/PANI shows good results for HCl
vapors than NH3.
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References:
1. S. B. Kondawar, S. P. Agrawal, S. H. Nimkar, H. J. Sharma, P. T. Patil. Conductive
polyaniline-tin oxide nanocomposites for ammonia sensor, Adv. Mat. Lett. 3(5)
(2012) 393-398.
2. I. Fratoddi, I. Venditti, C. Cametti, M.V. Russo. Chemiresistive polyaniline-based
gas sensors: A mini review, Sens. Actuators B: Chem., 220(1) (2015) 534-548.
3. Z. Li, F. Blum, M. Bertino, C. Kim. Understanding the response of nanostructured
polyaniline gas sensors, Sens. Actuators B: Chem., 183(1) (2013) 419-427.
4. S. Chang, T. Hsueh, I. Chen, S. Hsieh, S. Chang, C. Hsu, Y. Lin, B. Huang. “Highly
sensitive ZnO nanowire acetone vapor sensor with Au adsorption, IEEE
Transactions on Nanotechnology, 7 (6) (2008) 754-759, 2008.
5. H. Sharma, N. Sonwane, S. Kondawar. Electrospun SnO2/Polyaniline composite
nanofibers based low temperature hydrogen gas sensor, Fibers Polym., 16(7)
(2015) 1527-1532.
6. S. Kondawar, S. Acharya, S. Dhakate. Microwave assisted hydrothermally
synthesized nanostructure zinc oxide reinforced polyaniline nanocomposites, Adv.
Mater. Lett, 2 (5) (2011) 362-367.

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 Thank You
 Paper presented at :
National Conference On Recent Advances in Applied Nano
Materials,
Osmania University , Hyderabad.

 Which is to be published in :
International Journal of Research Culture Society (IJRCS)

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