Highly sensitive sensing of volatile organic compound ethylamine

Article abstract of DOI:10.1016/j.dyepig.2014.04.030

Two new hemicyanine dyes with dihydroxybenzene moiety as a donor group have been investigated in terms of interacting with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) EtNH_2. The sensing behavior of the hemicyanines toward EtNH₂ was studied by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy. Different sensing mechanism of the dyes to EtNH₂ was confirmed by ¹NMR studies, together with theoretical calculations based on DFT and PPP-MO methods. We have also investigated the fast EtNH₂ gas sensing of these dyes loaded poly(acrylonitrile) nanofiber. Reversible response and recovery were achieved using alternating gas exposure. This system shows a fast EtNH₂ gas sensing within 5 s.