Designing Polymeric Sensing Materials for Analyte Detection and Related Mechanisms

Abstract

A systematic approach is used to design and tailor sensing materials for targeted analytes and specific applications. An example is used to demonstrate how potential sensing materials can be designed based on the chemical nature of both the target analyte and the sensing material, and thus predominant sensing mechanisms by which the two interact. The example analyte is a small, polar molecule able to hydrogen bond; therefore, a sensing material that targets the analyte should have polymer chains that pack tightly together, be polar, and be able to hydrogen bond. Any metal oxide dopants should be able to coordinate to both the target analyte and the polymer. Polyaniline and poly (o-anisidine), along with nickel oxide and zinc oxide, are chosen as potential sensing materials and subsequently evaluated based on their ability to sorb the analyte in question.