Highly Response and Sensitivity Chitosan-Polyvinyl alcohol Based Hexanal Sensors

¹ School of Materials Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Perlis 02600 Jejawi, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia
² Physics Department, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Science, University of Sumatera Utara, Medan, Sumatera Utara 20155, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: nurzuraihan90@gmail.com

Abstract

This work is to study the sensing properties of chitosanpolyvinyl alcohol film sensors upon hexanal gas exposure using vapour sensing technique. The sensor fabrication process was done using electrochemical deposition method by deposit the sensing materials on the gold patterned electrode with chitosan/PVA. The response value of chitosan-PVA film sensors towards hexanal was taken as an output voltage using electrical testing method. In this study, 1.75% of chitosan with 5% of PVA were mixed with the ratio of (95:5) was tested upon exposure to hexanal gas. The concentration of the hexanal was varied as 10 ppm, 20 ppm, 30 ppm. It was found that the chitosan-PVA film sensors showed fast response, stable, good stability, good recovery, repeatable and good sensitivity towards hexanal exposure. The morphology of the pure chitosan and chitosan-PVA was analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the interaction between chitosan and PVA was examined by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The FTIR results indicate the changes in characteristics of the spectral peaks due to the formation of the intermolecular bonds between chitosan and PVA. The SEM morphology of the composites showed flat smooth surface that be a sign of uniform distribution of chitosan and PVA mixture throughout the films.