Optical detection of CO and CO₂ temperature dependent desorption from carbon nanotube clusters

Abstract

The development of new materials relies on high precision methods to quantify adsorption/desorption of gases from surfaces. One commonly used approach is temperature programmed desorption spectroscopy. While this approach is very accurate, it requires complex instrumentation, and it is limited to performing experiments under high vacuum, thus restricting experimental scope. An alternative approach is to integrate the surface of interest directly onto a detector face, creating an active substrate. One surface that has applications in numerous areas is the carbon nanotube (CNT). As such, an active substrate that integrates a CNT surface on a sensor and is able to perform measurements in ambient environments will have significant impact. In the present work, we have developed an active substrate that combines an optical sensor with a CNT cluster substrate. The optical sensor is able to accurately probe the temperature dependent desorption of carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gases from the CNT cluster surface. This active substrate will enable a wide range of temperature dependent desorption measurements to be performed from a scientifically interesting material system.

Photonic gas sensors exploiting directly the optical properties of hybrid carbon nanotube localized surface plasmon structures

“…The lack of a similar CO 2- specific response in Figure 4 , obtained from a sensor assembled without CNTs, confirms that the sensitivity to CO 2 is a direct result of the addition of the CNTs and a reaction to the presence of CO 2 . This demonstrates a large difference between the response to bulk refractive index and the chemically induced changes in the optical properties, caused by the specific interplay between the CNTs and CO 2 16 , 32 , 33 ; up till now the only proven chemically selective CNTs sensor have been electrically based 34 .…”

Optical Microresonators for Sensing and Transduction: A Materials Perspective

“…[30,31] Exposure to analytes comes via immersion in the analyte-containing solvent [32,33] or through exposure to vapor in a sample chamber. [34][35][36][37]…”

A Vibrometer Based on Magnetorheological Optical Resonators

“…These micro-cavities have been used for the development of devices for telecommunication (filtering, switches, multiplexing, etc.) [21][22][23][24] as well as mechanical [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32], thermal [33][34][35][36], and biological [37][38][39][40][41][42] sensing applications.…”