Biogenic amine vapour detection using poly(anilineboronic acid) films

Poly(anilineboronic acid) films were electrochemically deposited onto gold interdigitated arrays and employed as vapour detectors. Exposure to butylamine resulted in an increase in the measured resistance of the films and was compared to the response of polyaniline films under identical conditions. Temporal differential resistance measurements allowed for desirable signal characteristics and facilitated the monitoring of film response to analyte. The vapor detectors were able to respond to concentrations of butylamine as low as 10 ppb, 10-fold lower than the reported human detection thresholds of 0.1–1 ppm. The differences in the nature of response for both polyaniline and poly(anilineboronic acid) suggest that the boronic acid functionality plays an important role in the temporal response of the detector. UV–vis and polarization modulated infrared reflectance absorbance spectroscopy suggest that electrostatic interactions are occurring between boronic acid and volatile amines, resulting in the temporal differences in the response characteristics.