New indigo/nanocarbons hybrid material as chemical filter for the enhancement of gas sensor selectivity towards nitrogen dioxide

A new hybrid material performed by the immobilization of indigo particles on nanocarbonaceous matrix has been developed, characterized and implemented with chemoresistors. If phthalocyaninebased chemoresistors provide a high sensitivity, a low threshold of detection and a partial selectivity towards oxidizing pollutants, indigo/nanocarbons hybrid material acts as a selective ozone filter from air sample and so strongly enhances the sensor selectivity towards nitrogen dioxide. The functionalization, highlighted by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and thermogravimetric analysis, occurs in a non-covalent way and proceeds through pi-stacking interactions. With filtering yields higher than 99.5% for ozone and less than 5% for nitrogen dioxide, indigo adsorbed onto multi-wall carbon nanotubes has been identified as the most selective filtering material while exhibiting a much greater durability than indigo or nanotubes separately. Associated to phthalocyanine-based gas sensor, the sustainable, selective and real-time monitoring of NO2 in ppb range has been successfully achieved.