Development of Prototype Laboratory Setup for Selective Detection of Ethylene Based on Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

We report here a prototype laboratory setup for detecting ethylene (C2H4) in ppm level employing a sensor made of multiwalled carbon nanotubes of 40 nm average tube diameter. The proposed reversible chemoresistive ethylene sensor is fabricated using Kapton as the substrate onto which carbon nanotubes are coated using thick film technology. IDT silver electrodes are printed using piezo head based ink-jet printing technology. The increases in electrical resistance of the sensor element are measured on exposure to ethylene for different ethylene concentrations using a potentiostat and data acquisition system. The increase in resistance of the calibrated sensor element on exposure to ethylene (analyte) is about 18.4% at room temperature for 50 ppm ethylene concentration. This change is reversible. Our sensor element exhibits a better performance than those reported earlier (1.8%) and it has got the rise and fall time of 10 s and 60 s, respectively. It could be used for testing the ripening of fruits.