Centre for Advanced Materials and Industrial Chemistry (CAMIC), School of Applied Sciences, RMIT University , GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2015 Jan 28;7(3):1491-9. doi: 10.1021/am507069z. Epub 2015 Jan 16.
This study reports for the first time that polystyrene monodispersed nanosphere monolayer (PS-MNM) based Au (Au-MNM) and Ag (Ag-MNM) nanostructures deposited on quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) transducers can be used for nonoptical based chemical sensing with extremely high sensitivity and selectivity. This was demonstrated by exposing the Au-MNM and Ag-MNM based QCMs to low concentrations of Hg(0) vapor in the presence interferent gas species (i.e., H2O, NH3, volatile organics, etc.) at operating temperatures of 30 and 75 °C. At 30 °C, the Au-MNM and Ag-MNM based QCMs showed ∼16 and ∼20 times higher response magnitude toward Hg(0) vapor concentration of 3.26 mg/m(3) (364 parts per billion by volume (ppbv)) relative to their unmodified control counterparts, respectively. The results indicated that the extremely high sensitivity was not due to the increased surface area (only 4.62 times increase) but due to their long-range interspatial order and high number of surface defect formation which are selectively active toward Hg(0) vapor sorption. The Au-MNM and Ag-MNM also had more than an order of magnitude lower detection limits (<3 ppbv) toward Hg(0) vapor compared to their unmodified control counterparts (>30 ppbv). When the operating temperature was increased from 30 to 75 °C, it was found that the sensors exhibited lower drift, better accuracy, and better selectivity toward Hg(0) vapor but at the compromise of higher detection limits. The high repeatability (84%), accuracy (97%), and stability of Au-MNM in particular make it practical to potentially be used as nonspectroscopic based Hg(0) vapor sensor in many industries either as mercury emission monitoring or as part of a mercury control feedback system.
这项研究首次报道,基于聚苯乙烯单分散纳米球单层(PS-MNM)的金(Au-MNM)和银(Ag-MNM)纳米结构沉积在石英晶体微天平(QCM)换能器上,可用于非光学化学传感,具有极高的灵敏度和选择性。这是通过在 30 和 75°C 的工作温度下,将 Au-MNM 和 Ag-MNM 基 QCM 暴露于低浓度的 Hg(0)蒸汽中,并存在干扰气体(即 H2O、NH3、挥发性有机物等)来证明的。在 30°C 时,Au-MNM 和 Ag-MNM 基 QCM 对 3.26mg/m3(364 体积分ppm)的 Hg(0)蒸汽浓度的响应幅度分别比其未修饰的对照物高约 16 和 20 倍。结果表明,极高的灵敏度不是由于比表面积增加(仅增加了 4.62 倍),而是由于其长程间隔有序和高数量的表面缺陷形成,这些缺陷对 Hg(0)蒸汽的吸附具有选择性。Au-MNM 和 Ag-MNM 对 Hg(0)蒸汽的检测限也比未修饰的对照物低一个数量级(<3ppbv),而未修饰的对照物的检测限则大于 30ppbv。当工作温度从 30°C 升高到 75°C 时,发现传感器对 Hg(0)蒸汽的漂移更小,准确性更好,选择性更好,但检测限更高。Au-MNM 的高重复性(84%)、准确性(97%)和稳定性使其特别实用,可作为非光谱 Hg(0)蒸汽传感器在许多行业中使用,例如汞排放监测或作为汞控制反馈系统的一部分。