Issue 10, 2020

Detection of nitrous oxide using infrared optical plasmonics coupled with carbon nanotubes

Abstract

Interest in gas sensing using functionalised carbon nanotubes is a major area of research that utilises changes in their electrical properties induced by the reaction with a specific gas. This paper describes specific gas sensing on an optical platform consisting of a 2-dimensional nano-structured plasmonic array of nano-antennae/nanowires, with topological dimensions of mean radius of 130 nm, typical length of 20 μm and a period of 500 nm. The array is created by the spatial compaction of germanium oxides when the material interacts with ultra-violet irradiance, it can support infra-red localised surface plasmons. Carbon nanotubes are deposited upon the surface of the plasmonic platform followed by the application of the polyethyleneimine polymer. The resulting nanomaterials-photonic platform gives rise to the selective response to nitrous oxide gases, which are a major contributor to atmospheric degradation. We achieve the device sensitivity up to 100% atmosphere of nitrous oxide with a detection limit of 109 ppm, a maxiumum response time of nineteen seconds and yielding a full-scale deflection of +5.7 nm. This work demonstrates that the optical properties of specific carbon nanotubes can be used in a wide range of sensing applications offering a new sensing paradigm.

Graphical abstract: Detection of nitrous oxide using infrared optical plasmonics coupled with carbon nanotubes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
25 jun 2020
Accepted
12 sep 2020
First published
16 sep 2020
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Nanoscale Adv., 2020,2, 4615-4626

Detection of nitrous oxide using infrared optical plasmonics coupled with carbon nanotubes

T. Allsop, M. Al Araimi, R. Neal, C. Wang, P. Culverhouse, J. D. Ania-Castañón, D. J. Webb, P. Davey, J. M. Gilbert and A. Rozhin, Nanoscale Adv., 2020, 2, 4615 DOI: 10.1039/D0NA00525H

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