Room temperature amine sensors enabled by sidewall functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes

Clara Paoletti; Maggie He; Pietro Salvo; Bernardo Melai; Nicola Calisi; Matteo Mannini; Brunetto Cortigiani; Francesca G. Bellagambi; Timothy M. Swager; Fabio Di Francesco; Andrea Pucci

doi:10.1039/C7RA13304A

Room temperature amine sensors enabled by sidewall functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes†

Clara Paoletti,^a Maggie He,^b Pietro Salvo,

^ac Bernardo Melai,^a Nicola Calisi,^ade Matteo Mannini,

^de Brunetto Cortigiani,^de Francesca G. Bellagambi,^a Timothy M. Swager,^b Fabio Di Francesco*^a and Andrea Pucci

*^a

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* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Pisa, Via G. Moruzzi 13, 56124 Pisa, Italy
E-mail: fabio.difrancesco@unipi.it, andrea.pucci@unipi.it

^b Department of Chemistry, Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

^c Institute of Clinical Physiology, National Council of Research (IFC-CNR), Via G. Moruzzi 1, Pisa, Italy

^d Department of Chemistry “U. Schiff”, University of Florence, Via della Lastruccia 3-13, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy

^e National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM), Via G. Giusti 9, 50121 Firenze, Italy

Abstract

A new series of sidewall modified single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) with perfluorophenyl molecules bearing carboxylic acid or methyl ester moieties are herein reported. Pristine and functionalized SWCNTs (p-SWCNTs and f-SWCNTs, respectively) were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The nitrene-based functionalization provided intact SWCNTs with methyl 4-azido-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzoate (SWCNT-N-C₆F₄CO₂CH₃) and 4-azido-2,3,5,6-tetrafluorobenzoic acid (SWCNT-N-C₆F₄CO₂H) attached every 213 and 109 carbon atoms, respectively. Notably, SWCNT-N-C₆F₄CO₂H was sensitive in terms of the percentage of conductance variation from 5 to 40 ppm of ammonia (NH₃) and trimethylamine (TMA) with a two-fold higher variation of conductance compared to p-SWCNTs at 40 ppm. The sensors are highly sensitive to NH₃ and TMA as they showed very low responses (0.1%) toward 200 ppm of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) containing various functional groups representative of different classes of analytes such as benzene, tetrahydrofurane (THF), hexane, ethyl acetate (AcOEt), ethanol, acetonitrile (CH₃CN), acetone and chloroform (CHCl₃). Our system is a promising candidate for the realization of single-use chemiresistive sensors for the detection of threshold crossing by low concentrations of gaseous NH₃ and TMA at room temperature.

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Room temperature amine sensors enabled by sidewall functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes†

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Room temperature amine sensors enabled by sidewall functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes

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