Highly sensitive amperometric Nafion-based CO sensor using Pt/C electrodes with different kinds of carbon materials

In this paper, a novel amperometric CO sensor using Nafion and Pt/C composite electrodes was fabricated. Three kinds of carbon materials (carbon fibers, multiwall carbon nanotubes and carbon blacks) were utilized as the supports of the sensing and reference electrodes for the CO sensors. The results revealed that the effective Pt loadings on the electrodes increased in the following order: carbon fibers (CFs) > multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) > carbon blacks (CBs), leading to the increasing of the sensitivities toward CO in same order. In other words, the sensor using Pt/CFs as the sensing electrode (SE) showed the highest sensitivity with the value of 0.077 μA/ppm and shortest response time in the range of CO concentration from 1 to 200 ppm at room temperature. Further, a reproducible and stable response against 50 ppm CO was obtained for the sensor with Pt/CFs SE materials. Moreover, a low detection limit of 0.1 ppm for CO was also examined, suggesting that the sensor can be convenient for detecting very low traces of CO.