Textile chemiresistors with sensitive layers based on polymer ionic liquids: Applicability for detection of toxic gases and chemical warfare agents

The article presents pioneering research of textile chemiresistors on Evolon and Polyester substrates equipped with graphite electrodes and in-situ polymerized poly(tetrabutylphosphonium 3-sulfopropylacrylate) or poly(tributylhexylphosphonium 3-sulfopropylacrylate) sensitive layers. The DC- and AC- responses to 10 ppm of methanol, nitrogen dioxide, 4-bromoacetophenone, diethylmalonate and yperite were then investigated at laboratory temperature - the reference was “pure” synthetic air. Under these circumstances the DC- responses (SDC) varied from 0.48 to 1.36 and maximum AC- responses (Spa) from 8 to 26 deg. It was shown that sensor dynamics depends mainly on molecular weight of the analytes. Moreover, the magnitude of AC-responses correlated both qualitatively and quantitatively with the dipole moments of the analyzed molecules.