Gas sensing performance of polyaniline/ZnO organic-inorganic hybrids for detecting VOCs at low temperature

Polyaniline (PANI) was prepared by the chemical oxidative polymerization of aniline, and ZnO, with the mean particle size of 28 nm, was synthesized by a non-aqueous solvent method. The organic-inorganic PANI/ZnO hybrids with different mass fractions of PANI were obtained by mechanically mixing the prepared PANI and ZnO. The gas sensing properties of PANI/ZnO hybrids to different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including methanol, ethanol and acetone were investigated at a low operating temperature of 90 °C. Compared with the pure PANI and ZnO, the PANI/ZnO hybrids presented much higher response to VOCs. Meanwhile, the PANI/ZnO hybrid exhibited a good reversibility and a short response-recovery time, implying its potential application for gas sensors. The sensing mechanism was suggested to be related to the existence of p-n heterojunctions in the PANI/ZnO hybrids.