Carbon nanotubes coated fiber optic ammonia gas sensor

We report, intrinsic fiber optic carbon nanotubes coated sensor for the detection of ammonia gas at room temperature. Multimode step index polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) optical fiber passive cladding is partly replaced by an active coating of single and multi-walled carbon nanotubes following the dip coating technique and the reaction with ammonia is studied by measuring the change in output intensity from the optical fiber under various ammonia gas concentrations in the range 0-500 ppm in step of 50 ppm. The sensitivity is calculated for different wavelengths in the range 200-1100 nm both for single and multi-walled carbon nanotubes coated fiber. Higher sensitivities are obtained as 0.26 counts/ppm and 0.31 counts/ppm for single-walled (average diameter 1.3 nm, 30 wt.% purity) and multi-walled (average diameter 10-15 nm, 95 wt.% purity) carbon nanotubes respectively. The role of diameter and purity of carbon nanotubes towards the ammonia sensing is studied and the results are discussed.

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