Effect of the dispersants on the performance of fuel cell type CO sensor with Pt–C/Nafion electrodes

A fuel-cell-type gas sensor based on the membrane electrode assemble (MEA) composed of proton exchange membrane (Nafion) and Pt/C sensing electrodes was fabricated for detection of CO at room temperature. The Pt/C electrodes materials were synthesized from Vulcan XC-72 carbon powders and hexachloroplatinic acid (H2PtCl6). This paper mainly focused on the effect of various dispersants (ethylene glycol (EG) tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), glycerol and EG/polytetrafluoro-ethylene (PTFE)) on the performance of the presented sensor. Results revealed that the sensor utilizing EG as the dispersant elicited the highest response current toward 50 ppm CO. The current of the sensor was linearly correlated with CO concentration in the range of 1–200 ppm, which sensitivity was 88 nA/ppm. In addition, the 90% response and recovery times of the sensor toward 50 ppm CO were 22 and 24 s, respectively. Besides, the prepared CO sensor also had a good repeatability and acceptable selectivity.