Electrophoretic Deposition of Oxidized Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes on Stainless Steel for Ethanol Sensor
Date
2023
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Department of Chemistry
Abstract
This dissertation research describe the feasibility study and investigation of
electrophoretic deposition of oxidized MWCNTs for the application in ethanol sensor.
Ethanol sensors are attracting tremendous interest because of their wide spread
application in industry, environmental monitoring, space exploration, biomedicine and
pharmaceuticals. Ethanol sensors with high sensitivity and selectivity are required for
leakage detection of explosive gases such as hydrogen and for real time detection of
toxic and pathogenic gases in industries. There is also a storage demand for the ability
to monitor and control our ordinary environment, especially with the increasing
concern of the global warming. MWCNTs are used to obtain thin film by
electrophoretic deposition. Before deposition, MWCNTs were purified and surface
functionalized by concentrate nitric acid (HNO
3
) under heating.
The oxidized MWCNTs were characterized by FTIR. FTIR shows the presence of
oxygenated functionalized groups as carboxylic acid and hydroxyl group on the
surface of MWCNTs. The uniform electrophoretic deposition of MWCNTs are
confirmed by SEM. Raman spectroscopy confirmed the deposited material was
nothing other than MWCNTs.
The EPD experiments were carried out by using oxidized MWCNTs on stainless steel
plate at 10V at a constant time for 10 min and electrode were fixed at a distance of 1.5
cm. modification of carbon nanotubes with functional groups will greatly enhance the
selectivity of the carbon nanotubes-based sensors. CNTs-based sensors have proved to
work well at normal room temperature, which reduces power consumption of the
device and enables the safer detection of flammable gases and alcohol. The resistance
of electrophoretic deposition material was measured in closed glass chamber with
digital multi-meter. Then sensitivity percentage was calculated. It was observed that
the rate of % sensitivity increases with time and became saturated after certain time.
Description
Keywords
Carbon nanotubes, Ethanol sensor, Electrophoretic deposition, Global warming