Silver phthalocyanine thin films carrying gold, palladium and silver nanoparticles for detection of taggants in explosives

The sensors with geometry i) exhibited good recovery capabilities, those with geometry ii) seemed to better preserve phthalocyanine sensing properties. For the best combination, the AgPc(50 nm)/Au(10 nm) sensor, its dc-response rose to the value of 373 for 190 ppm of 2-nitrotoluene. This suggests that 2-nitrotoluene can be detected in the sub-ppm concentrations by these films.