Room temperature ppb level Cl2 detection and sensing mechanism of highly selective and sensitive phthalocyanine nanowires

Nanowires of Cu(II) 1,4,8,11,15,18,22,25-octabutoxy-29H, 31H-phthalocyanine (CuPcOC4) have been fabricated onto the glass substrate by using low cost self-assembly technique. It has been demonstrated that these nanowires were highly sensitive and selective towards Cl-2 at room temperature with minimum detection limit of 5 ppb. The response of nanowires was found to increase linearly (91-670%) with increase in Cl-2 concentration (5-1500 ppb). The adsorption of Cl-2 on nanowires surface has followed Elovich equation. Raman spectroscopic and XPS studies revealed that central metal ions of CuPcOC4 molecules were the predominant sites of Cl-2 absorption. The results emphasized that these nanowires can be promising candidates for room temperature Cl-2 sensing applications. (C) 2014 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.