Investigation of Acetone Vapour Sensing Properties of a Ternary Composite of Doped Polyaniline, Reduced Graphene Oxide and Chitosan Using Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor

This work reports the use of a ternary composite that integrates p-Toluene sulfonic acid doped polyaniline (PANI), chitosan, and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as the active sensing layer of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor. The SPR sensor is intended for application in the non-invasive monitoring and screening of diabetes through the detection of low concentrations of acetone vapour of less than or equal to 5 ppm, which falls within the range of breath acetone concentration in diabetic patients. The ternary composite film was spin-coated on a 50-nm-thick gold layer at 6000 rpm for 30 s. The structure, morphology and chemical composition of the ternary composite samples were characterized by FTIR, UV-VIS, FESEM, EDX, AFM, XPS, and TGA and the response to acetone vapour at different concentrations in the range of 0.5 ppm to 5 ppm was measured at room temperature using SPR technique. The ternary composite-based SPR sensor showed good sensitivity and linearity towards acetone vapour in the range considered. It was determined that the sensor could detect acetone vapour down to 0.88 ppb with a sensitivity of 0.69 degree/ppm with a linearity correlation coefficient of 0.997 in the average SPR angular shift as a function of the acetone vapour concentration in air. The selectivity, repeatability, reversibility, and stability of the sensor were also studied. The acetone response was 87%, 94%, and 99% higher compared to common interfering volatile organic compounds such as propanol, methanol, and ethanol, respectively. The attained lowest detection limit (LOD) of 0.88 ppb confirms the potential for the utilisation of the sensor in the non-invasive monitoring and screening of diabetes.

Enhanced Sensitivity of Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor Functionalized with Doped Polyaniline Composites for the Detection of Low-Concentration Acetone Vapour

PANI/chitosan composite and a ternary composite comprising of PANI, chitosan, and reduced graphene oxide have been successfully synthesised and characterised using FTIR and UV-VIS spectroscopy. Optical constants of the composites were extracted from the UV-VIS spectra. The extracted parameters were applied in the simulation of a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensor functionalised with PANI/chitosan and ternary composites. The aim was to explore the applicability of the composite-based SPR sensor in the detection of low-concentration acetone vapour within the range of 1.8 ppm–5.0 ppm for diabetes monitoring and screening. The functionalization of the SPR sensor with the PANI/chitosan and the ternary composites shows promising application of the sensor in the detection of acetone vapour at a low concentration down to less than 0.5 ppm. The maximum sensitivity values of about 60 and 180 degree/refractive index change were observed for PANI/chitosan and ternary composite sensing layers, respectively, in comparison with the bare gold-based SPR which shows no response up to 10 ppm concentration of acetone vapour in air. In addition, the two sensing layers show good selectivity to acetone vapour compared to ethanol, methanol, and ammonia. The response in the case of ternary composite shows better linearity with a correlation coefficient of 1.0 compared to PANI/chitosan- and gold-based SPR layers with 0.9999 and 0.9997, respectively.

Acetone vapour-assisted growth of 2D single-crystalline organic lead halide perovskite microplates and their temperature-enhanced photoluminescence

We report an acetone vapour-assisted method to grow single-crystalline 2D perovskite microplates and find their temperature-enhanced photoluminescence.

High-performance gas sensors based on a thiocyanate ion-doped organometal halide perovskite

A gas sensor based on a thiocyanate ion-doped organometal halide perovskite can sensitively and selectively detect acetone vapour and nitrogen dioxide with good repeatability and improved stability.