Low-temperature NO2 sensors based on polythiophene/WO3 organic-inorganic hybrids

Polythiophene (PTP) was prepared by a chemical oxidative polymerization and nanosized WO3 was prepared by a colloidal chemical method. The organic-inorganic PTP/WO3 hybrids with different mass fractions of PTP were obtained by a simple mechanically mixing the prepared PTP and WO3. The as-prepared PTP/WO3 hybrids have a higher thermal stability than the pure PTP. The gas sensing measurements demonstrate that the PTP/WO3 hybrid sensors exhibit higher response for detecting NO2 at low temperature than the pure PTP and WO3 sensor. The sensing mechanism is suggested to be related to the existence of p-n heterojunctions in the PTP/WO3 hybrids. The response of the PTP/WO3 hybrids is markedly influenced by the PTP mass fraction. The 20% PTP/WO3 hybrid shows high response and good selectivity to NO2 at low temperature (<90 degrees C). Therefore, the PTP/WO3 hybrids can be expected to be potentially used as gas sensor material for detecting NO2 at low temperature.