PANI/Sm2O3 nanocomposite sensor for fast hydrogen detection at room temperature

Polyaniline/Sm2O3 (PANI/Sm2O3) nanocomposite with 5 wt% Sm2O3 was synthesized by in-situ oxidative polymerization of emeraldine base (EB) phase in presence of Sm2O3 microspheres. The synthesized sample was characterized by XRD, FE-SEM, Raman and FT-IR. Characterization data have shown that PANI/Sm2O3 composite was formed by Sm2O3 particles surrounded by a thick coating of polyaniline. The gas-sensing performances of conductometric sensors based on PANI/Sm2O3 were investigated for the first time to detect hydrogen in air at room temperature (30 degrees C). The experimental results reported here demonstrated the good sensing properties of the composite-based PANI/Sm2O3 sensor in terms of response, fast response/recovery time as well as excellent response repeatability, compared to the pure PANI and Sm2O3. The improved sensing performances were attributed to the formation of p-p heterojunction in PANI/Sm2O3 composite.