TiO 2 Hollow Nanofiber/Polyaniline Nanocomposites for Ammonia Detection at Room Temperature

• Published in: ChemNanoMat : chemistry of nanomaterials for energy, biology and more biology and more, 2022-08, Vol.8 (8)
• Main Authors: Conti, Patrick P., dos Santos, Danilo M., Goldthorpe, Irene A., Correa, Daniel S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2199-692X; 2199-692X
• DOI: 10.1002/cnma.202200154

Ammonia (NH 3 ) detection has gained considerable attention in agricultural and environmental monitoring, chemical and pharmaceutical processing, and disease diagnosis, which requires the development of sensors with high sensitivity. Herein, we propose a novel gas sensor based on nanocomposites of TiO 2 hollow nanofibers and polyaniline (PANI) for the sensitive detection of ammonia at room temperature. TiO 2 nanostructures in anatase phase were prepared by the combination of coaxial electrospinning and calcination treatment. The resulting material was mixed with PANI and deposited onto gold interdigitated electrodes (IDEs). The hybrid platforms exhibited superior sensing performance compared to the platform based on their individual phases, which is ascribed to a synergistic effect from p‐n heterojunction formation. Specifically, the platforms based on TiO 2 /PANI nanocomposite showed a fast response towards NH 3 (e. g., 55 s at 10 ppm) at room temperature (25 °C). Additionally, the platform demonstrated the ability to detect NH 3 at low concentrations (10–30 ppm) and a detection mechanism was proposed to explain the results. Overall, these results show the promise of electrospun TiO 2 hollow nanofibers/PANI composites for the development of high‐performance room temperature ammonia sensors.