Room-Temperature NO2 Sensors of Polyphiophene Films by Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Polymerization Technique

Owing to their promising applications in gas sensors devices, organic conjugated polymers (conducting polymers) have been continuously studied during the past few decades ¹ . We have recently reported a new polymer synthesis method by using novel atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) jets (APPIs). The nitrogen-containing polymer nanoparticles are successfully synthesized by using aniline and pyrrole monomers via a simple APP polymerization technique ² , However, the interactions between the use of the novel APP polymerization technique and the sulfur-containing conjugated polymer (polythiophene) are not well known. Accordingly, in this study, polythiophene films are directly deposited on substrates with interdigitated electrodes by APPJs and their gas sensing properties are investigated. This plasma polymerization technique can be used to synthesize the poly- and single-crystalline high-density thin films with nanoparticles by enhancing the sufficient nucleation and recombination. The nanostructured conductive porous polythiophene sensors prepared by novel APPJs polymerization technique showed the excellent NO 2 -sensing properties at room-temperature. The detailed APP polymerization system, sensor property, FT-IR, FE-SEM image, XPS, TOF-SIMS, resistance, and related mechanism are studied and will be discussed in detail. This research contributes to the design of highly sensitive NO 2 gas sensors adopting the novel plasma-polymerized conductive porous polymer as sensing materials.