Thin Films of Chlorinated Vanadyl Phthalocyanines as Active Layers of Chemiresistive Sensors for the Detection of Ammonia

Halogenated metal phthalocyanines are promising materials for the manufacture of active layers of chemiresistive sensors for the detection of various gases. Despite the high interest in such sensors, there are few systematic studies of the position of halogen substituents in phthalocyanine macroring on the chemiresistive response of their films to gases. In this work, we prepared and studied films of novel tetrachlorosubstituted vanadyl phthalocyanine derivatives with Cl substituents in the peripheral (VOPcCl4-p) and nonperipheral (VOPcCl4-np) positions of the phthalocyanine ring as active layers of chemiresistive sensors to reveal the effect of the position of substituents on their structure and sensor response to low concentrations of NH3. It was shown that the films of VOPcCl4-p exhibited a noticeably higher sensor response to NH3 than the VOPcCl4-np ones. The limit of detection of NH3 was 0.7 ppm. The sensing layers demonstrated a reversible sensor response at room temperature with fairly low response/recovery times. It was also demonstrated that NH3 can be detected in the presence of various interfering gases (CO2 and H2) and some volatile organic vapors, as well as in a mixture of gases with a composition close to exhaled air.

Automated summary

Halogenated metal phthalocyanines are promising materials for chemiresistive sensors. In this study, films of novel tetrachlorosubstituted vanadyl phthalocyanine derivatives were prepared and studied to investigate the effect of substituent position on the chemiresistive response to low concentrations of NH3. It was found that films with substituents in the peripheral position exhibited a higher sensor response to NH3 than films with nonperipheral substituents.