Inorganic/organic small molecular semiconductor self-assembly to functional core–shell nanoarchitectures for ultrasensitive chemiresistors to aniline vapor

Abstract

We developed a new method combining the in situ liquid–solid phase reaction and self-assembly in solution to synthesize novel inorganic/organic small molecular semiconductor core–shell nanoparticles of ZnS/PTCDA (ZPNPs). This method is a one-step process which can produce stoichiometric inorganic/organic core–shell nanoparticles and does not introduce any impurity. The film of ZPNPs exhibited an ultrasensitive detection of aniline vapor. The film of ZPNPs can highly selectively distinguish aniline vapor from many volatile organic compounds and water due to the strong synergistic interactions of π–π and hydrogen-bonds between electron donor (aniline) and acceptor (PTCDA) molecules, in which the detection limit was lowered to 100 ppb at room temperature.