Carbon-Based Polymer Nanocomposites for Sensing Applications

Abstract The field of sensing applications has seen significant progress during the past few years. This progress is driven by their importance in many critical applications, especially those related to environmental monitoring. In addition to that, the emerging nanotechnologies have opened the door for further developments of sensing devices and their applications and allowed for the possibility of tuning the sensing properties of these devices to suit specific applications. Nanocomposites of carbon and polymeric materials, in particular, are very promising candidates for sensing applications. Combining sensing properties of both carbon nanostructures and polymers has been shown to be an effective strategy to improve sensing properties such as sensitivity, selectivity, and the response of sensing devices. In this chapter, a review of recent advances in the field of carbon-based polymer nanocomposite materials for sensing applications is given. Moreover, the various nanocomposite materials systems, together with their sensing properties and their uses for sensing applications, are also discussed.