Differential study of substituted and unsubstituted cobalt phthalocyanines for gas sensor applications

The conductivity of CoPc (cobalt phthalocyanine) and Co[(SO3Na)2,3Pc] was measured under a flow of two different gases (NH3 and O3), during exposure/recovery cycles. It appears that the relative responses are linearly related to the concentration, in the 20–200 ppb range for O3 and in the 20–200 ppm range for NH3. Observed during time, the sensing parameters allow a qualitative understanding of the kinetics. The comparative study of those products under both different gases gave interesting results for sensor applications. Whereas CoPc is sensitive to both gases, its sulfonated counterpart is only sensitive to NH3.