Composite nanofibers of conducting polymers and hydrophobic insulating polymers: Preparation and sensing applications

Various conducting polymer/hydrophobic insulating polymer (CP/HIP) composite nanofibers have been prepared by electrospinning and vapor deposition polymerization (VDP) with benzoyl peroxide (BPO) as oxidant. BPO is soluble in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and can form homogenous solutions with hydrophobic polymers such as poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS). High-quality nanofibers of PMMA or PS containing a certain amount of BPO were produced by electrospinning and used as the templates for VDP of pyrrole, 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT), and aniline. The non-woven mats of the resulting CP/HIP composite fibers can be used as the high-sensitive sensing elements of gas sensors. A gas senor based on polypyrrole (PPy)/PMMA composite fibers was fabricated for sensing ammonia or chloroform vapor, and exhibited greatly improved performances comparing with those of the device based on a PPy flat film.