In
this work, we fabricated fast-responsive and highly sensitive
chemiresistive sensors based on nanocomposites of polypyrrole and
graphitic materials such as graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene
oxide (RGO), and sulfonated graphene (SRGO) by an in situ chemical
oxidative polymerization method. The synthesized nanocomposites were
characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM),
energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR)
spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The effects of the operating
temperature of different nanocomposites were investigated at four
temperatures (28, 40, 50, and 60 °C), and the results were compared
with that of the polypyrrole-based sensor. The experimental results
for sensors indicate that the proposed PPy/SRGO sensor could be an
appropriate choice for NH3 detection at 28 °C in the
range of 0.50 parts per billion (ppb) to 12 parts per million (ppm).
The PPy/SRGO nanocomposite gas sensor exhibited fast responsivity,
good repeatability, and high chemical selectivity to low-concentration
ammonia against humidity, methanol, ethanol, acetone, formaldehyde,
dibutylamine, dimethylamine, methylamine, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen
oxide at 28 °C. We utilized the PPy/SRGO sensor for studying
the variation of the ammonia concentration in hemodialysis (HD) patients’
breath before and after dialysis and correlated it with the blood
urea nitrogen (BUN) levels. The results of the PPy/SRGO sensor indicated
that the breath ammonia concentration significantly decreased after
dialysis in agreement with BUN. The results demonstrate the potential
application of the PPy/SRGO sensor for noninvasive detection of ammonia
in breath and make this type of sensor a promising tool for the diagnosis
of renal and liver diseases.