Hybrid materials based on pyrene-substituted metallo phthalocyanines as sensing layers for ammonia detection: Effect of the number of pyrene substituents

In this work, the effect of the number of pyrene substituents in zinc(II) phthalocyanine molecules on the sensor properties of their hybrid materials with single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNT) is studied. For this purpose, hybrid materials of SWCNTs modified with five different trioxyethylenethio substituted zinc(II) phthalocyanines containing 0, 1, 2, and 4 methoxypyrene substituents in the phthalocyanine ring were prepared and characterized by Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The chemiresistive sensor response of the prepared hybrids toward low concentrations of ammonia (1–100 ppm) was studied to reveal the effect of the number of pyrene substituents in the phthalocyanine ring on the sensor performance of the hybrid materials. It was demonstrated that the hybrids with zinc(II) phthalocyanine bearing four methoxypyrene substituents exhibited the maximal sensor response to ammonia with the limit of detection of 0.4 ppm. The sensitivity of the hybrid materials to ammonia was shown to be much higher than to CO2, H2, H2S, CH4, ethanol, acetone, and dichloromethane vapors, however, an oxidizing gas such as NO2 was an interfering compound in the determination of ammonia. 1 ppm NO2 show the same absolute value of the response than 10 ppm NH3. The quantum-chemical calculations were performed to explain this effect as well as the dependence of the binding energy of substituted zinc(II) phthalocyanines with carbon nanotubes on the number of pyrene substituents.