Journal
SENSORS AND ACTUATORS B-CHEMICAL
Volume 185, Issue -, Pages 488-495Publisher
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
DOI: 10.1016/j.snb.2013.05.038
Keywords
Methanol sensor; Optical; Chemical sensor; Nanofluid; Nano-emulsion
Funding
- Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) perspective research fund on development of advanced nanofluids of Department of Atomic Energy [2009/38/01/BRNS]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We demonstrate the methanol detection ability of stimulus-responsive magnetically polarizable nanoemulsions. The oil-in-water type of nanoemulsions of droplet radius similar to 100 nm is produced by emulsification of Fe3O4 based magnetic nanofluid in presence of water, oil and an anionic surfactant. The nano-emulsion droplets in a cylindrical vial or cuvette placed inside a small solenoid that produces a magnetic field of similar to 100 Gauss constitute the sensor assembly. It is observed that the presence of methanol in ppm level produces strong changes in the repulsive forces between the nanoemulsion droplets, giving rise to a red shift in the incident white light and a visually perceptible color change of the nanoemulsion. The origin of the red shift is studied by measuring the subtle changes in the intermolecular forces between the emulsion droplets in presence of methanol molecules. We observe that the diffusion of methanol molecules significantly alters the onset of electrostatic repulsion between nanodroplets. The sensor showed a linear detection range of 0-2250 ppm and a response time of similar to 1 s. The present approach is a simple, inexpensive and useful for sensitive detection of methanol in aqueous solution. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available