Original polymer P-DSBT nano-composite with ZnO nanoparticles for gas sensor at room temperature

Recently, polymer composite material has shown excellent performance in a wide range of technological applications, such as renewable energy, biomedical applications, optoelectronic devices …etc. As the knowledge-base on this emergent material continues to grow, a new kind of hybrid sensors fabricated with semiconducting metal oxides and conducting polymers had been synthesized and had demonstrated high sensing capability for several poisonous gases and chemical warfare agents at room temperature. This research work introduces the synthesis and the characterization of a novel polymer P-DSBT composite consisting of ZnO nanoparticles (P-DSBT/ZNO). The composite films P-DSBT/ZNO are prepared by spin coating technique and then studied using different spectroscopic characterization techniques, i.e., FTIR, XRD, SEM, TEM, AFM and UV–Vis to further investigate on the structure and the morphology of this material. For assessing the P-DSBT/ZNO selectivity, different oxidizing and reducing gases were applied and it was found that the nanocomposite has the best selectivity for methane (CH4). The obtained P-DSBT/ZNO shows a wide sensing range (0–200 ppm) and a very high response magnitude, i.e., relative resistance changes of approximately 40% per 60 ppm of CH4. The key finding of this work is that sensitivity for gas detection is greatly improved by the interaction of ZnO-based hybrid materials at room temperature.