Electrospun Nanofibers of Conducting Polyaniline/Al-SnO2 Composites for Hydrogen Sensing Applications

AbstractIn this paper, we report the synthesis and characterization of composites of polyaniline and aluminum doped tin oxide (Al-SnO2/PANI) nanofibers for hydrogen gas sensing application. Al-SnO2/PANI composite nanofibers have been fabricated via electrospinning technique and subsequent calcination procedure. The as-prepared Al-SnO2/PANI composite nanofibers were investigated for structural characterizations by means of SEM, FTIR, UV-VIS and XRD. SEM revealed the nanofibers with the diameter around 200-300nm formed a non-woven material with highly porous and agglomerated structure. FTIR and UV-VIS spectra revealed the possible incorporation of Al-SnO2 in PANI and confirmed the uniform attachment of PANI on the surface of Al-SnO2 nanostructures. XRD showed peak broadening and the peak positions shift from standard values, indicating presence of aluminum doped tin oxide in nanoparticles form in the polyaniline (PANI) matrix. On exposure to hydrogen gas (1000ppm), it was found that the nanofibers of Al-SnO2/PANI composite showed high sensitivity at 48 oC with relatively faster response/recovery as compared to pure SnO2 and Al doped SnO2 nanofibers