Characterization of gas sensing behavior of multi walled carbon nanotube polyaniline composite films

In this paper, we report multiwall carbon nanotube (MWNT) doped polyaniline (PANI) composite thin films for hydrogen gas sensing applications. PANI was synthesized by in- situ chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline using ammonium persulfate in acidic medium.This emeraldine salt form of PANI was converted into emeraldine PANI base and doped with MWNT (4 wt%) in presence of champhor sulfonic acid (CSA) by solution mixing method. The MWNT/PANI composite films were deposited onto ITO coated glass substrate using spin cast technique. The gas sensitivity of these composite films was evaluated by measuring the change in electrical resistance of composite films in presence of hydrogen gas for different pressures at room tempeature. It is observed that the MWNT/PANI composite film shows a higher sensitivity in comparison to pure PANI and it decreases on increasing hydrogen gas pressure. The composite films have also been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis and Atomic force microscopy (AFM).