A Convenient Approach to Constructing Superhydrophobic Paper Sensor for Gas Detection with High Immunity to Humidity

Abstract

Despite the resistance-type gas sensors attracting intensive research interest, the vulnerability to the interference of humidity is a great challenge for their large-scale productions and applications. Herein, a convenient “gas-sensitized sensing material + adhesive” approach for the fabrication of superhydrophobic interface has been proposed to settle the problem. The multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs)/styrene-ethylene/butylene-styrene block copolymer (SEBS) layer formed by spraying the cyclohexane suspension of MWCNTs and SEBS with micro/nanostructure endows the sensor with outstanding superhydrophobic property, presenting that the apparent contact angles (CA) are up to 179.6∘. The superhydrophobic paper sensor exhibited high sensing performance for acetone vapor and most importantly exceptional anti-humidity. The response of as-prepared sensor for other gaseous chemicals was consistent with that of MWCNTs, which indicated that the “gas-sensitized sensing [Formula: see text]” approach did not change the MWCNTs gas-sensitive characteristics. The approach builds an efficient bridge between gas-sensitive particles and flexible, superhydrophobic systems, inspiring a new simple way to the development of gas sensor with high immunity to humidity.