Gas sensing with gold-decorated vertically aligned carbon nanotubes

Prasantha Mudimela, Mattia Scardamaglia, Oriol González-León, Nicolas Reckinger, Rony Snyders, Eduard Llobet, Carla Bittencourt, Jean-François Colomer

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Vertically aligned carbon nanotubes of different lengths (150, 300, 500 μm) synthesized by thermal chemical vapor deposition and decorated with gold nanoparticles were investigated as gas sensitive materials for detecting nitrogen dioxide (NO2) at room temperature. Gold nanoparticles of about 6 nm in diameter were sputtered on the top surface of the carbon nanotube forests to enhance the sensitivity to the pollutant gas. We showed that the sensing response to nitrogen dioxide depends on the nanotube length. The optimum was found to be 300 μm for getting the higher response. When the background humidity level was changed from dry to 50% relative humidity, an increase in the response to NO2 was observed for all the sensors, regardless of the nanotube length.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)910-918
    Number of pages9
    JournalBeilstein Journal of Nanotechnology
    Volume5
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Keywords

    • Alignment
    • Carbon nanotubes
    • Decoration
    • Gas sensors
    • Metal nanoparticles
    • Thermal CVD

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