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Plasma-enabled sensing of urea and related amides on polyaniline

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Abstract

The atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) was used to enhance the sensitivity of industrially important polyaniline (PANI) for detection of organic vapors from amides. The gas sensing mechanism of PANI is operating on the basis of reversible protonation or deprotonation, whereas the driving force to improve the sensitivity after plasma modifications is unknown. Herein we manage to solve this problem and investigate the sensing mechanism of atmospheric plasma treated PANI for vapor detection of amides using urea as a model. The results from various analytical techniques indicate that the plausible mechanism responsible for the improved sensitivity after plasma treatment is operating through a cyclic transition state formed between the functional groups introduced by plasma treatment and urea. This transition state improved the sensitivity of PANI towards 15 ppm of urea by a factor of 2.4 times compared to the non-treated PANI. This plasma treated PANI is promising for the improvement of the sensitivity and selectivity towards other toxic and carcinogenic amide analytes for gas sensing applications such as improving material processing and controlling food quality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jozef Stefan Institute (F4), Jamova cesta 39, 1000, Ljubjana, Slovenia

    Harinarayanan Puliyalil & Uroš Cvelbar

  2. Jozef Stefan International Postgraduate School, Jamova cesta 39, 1000, Ljubjana, Slovenia

    Harinarayanan Puliyalil & Uroš Cvelbar

  3. Centre of Polymer Systems, University Institute, Tomas Bata University, Trida T. Bati 5678, 76001, Zlin, Czech Republic

    Petr Slobodian & Michal Sedlacik

  4. Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education, Faculty of Necatibey Education, Balikesir University, 10100, Balikesir, Turkey

    Ruhan Benlikaya

  5. Institute of Hydrodynamics, Academy of Sciences, Pod Patankou 5, 166 12, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Pavel Riha

  6. Institute for Future Environments and Institute for Health and Biomedical Innovation, School of Chemistry, Physics and Mechanical Engineering, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, 4000, Australia

    Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

  7. CSIRO-QUT Joint Sustainable Materials and Devices Laboratory, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Canberra, New South Wales, 2070, Australia

    Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

  8. School of Physics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia

    Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov

Authors
  1. Harinarayanan Puliyalil
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  2. Petr Slobodian
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  3. Michal Sedlacik
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  4. Ruhan Benlikaya
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  5. Pavel Riha
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  6. Kostya (Ken) Ostrikov
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  7. Uroš Cvelbar
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Correspondence to Uroš Cvelbar.

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Puliyalil, H., Slobodian, P., Sedlacik, M. et al. Plasma-enabled sensing of urea and related amides on polyaniline. Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. 10, 265–272 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-016-1570-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11705-016-1570-6

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