Polyaniline@SnO2 heterojunction loading on flexible PET thin film for detection of NH3 at room temperature

We prepared a heterostructure hybrid of PANI and SnO2 by a rapid and facile in situ chemical oxidation polymerization under very low monomer concentration, and the hybrid was loaded on a flexible PET thin film to structure a smart NH3 sensor. The structure, morphology and thermal stability of the hybrid were characterized by various analysis methods. Compared with those reported in literatures, the hybrid-based sensor not only has high sensitivity, good selectivity and wide linear response to NH3 at room temperature of 21 degrees C but also has flexible, structure simple and wearable performance. The room temperature operating of the sensor is particularly interesting, which leads to low-power consumption, environmental safety and long life times of the sensing materials. The improvement of sensing properties is attributed to the complementary and synergistic effect between SnO2 and PANI, and formation of p n heterojunction at the interface in hybrid. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.