Study on Effect of Acid and Heat Treatments of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on Benzene Detection

摘要

Effect of acid and heat treatments of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on benzene detection was investigated. For acid treatment, MWCNTs were treated by hydrochloric acid (HCl) for 1 h meanwhile other batches of MWCNTs were treated by heating under air ambient at 500°C for 1 h. Pristine, HCl-treated and heat-treated MWCNTs were separately coated with ethyl cellulose (EC) by spin-coating prior to fabrication of three different sensors named as EC/pristine MWCNTs, EC/HCl-MWCNTs and EC/heat-MWCNTs sensors, respectively. Each fabricated sensor was exposed to benzene vapor at room temperature for testing its sensing performance based on an increase in its electrical resistance which was sensitive to benzene vapor. Response of the sensors fabricated from EC/HCl-MWCNTs and EC/heat-MWCNTs were 3.66 and 1.92 times higher than that of EC/pristine MWCNTs, respectively. Sensitivity of all sensors would be attributed to swelling of EC, resulting in loosening of MWCNT network after benzene vapor exposure. In addition, the difference of sensing response of the EC/pristine MWCNTs when compared with those of EC/HCl-MWCNTs and EC/heat-MWCNTs would be ascribed to different crystallinity and functionalization of MWCNTs sidewalls, suggesting that acid and heat treatments of MWCNTs would be promising techniques for improvement of benzene detection.