Graphene/poly (methyl methacrylate) electrochemical impedance-transduced chemiresistor for detection of volatile organic compounds in aqueous medium.

In this paper, an impedance-transduced sensor is developed based on a nanostructured graphene (GN) and poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) sensing film for the detection of individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in aqueous media. Benefiting from a porous and high surface area, the nanostructured nanofiber is characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and optimized by the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) technique. The recorded EIS data indicate the selective recognition of four VOCs of interest at a constant pH while there is no redox probe. The non-faradaic responses to each analyte at different concentrations are correlated with a three-element equivalent circuit (resistances of the solution and the film, and a pseudo-capacitance). To analyze the ability of the sensing film in distinguishing between VOCs with similar average boiling points, the values of the individual equivalent circuit elements are used as features and clustered in three-dimensional (3D) plots. Among the features, the two representing the maximum differences between the VOCs are represented in a two-dimensional (2D) plot to show the selectivity of the sensor. The feature extraction analysis demonstrates that the constant phase element (CPE) of the equivalent circuit is a more accurate predictor of VOCs than the interfacial capacitance. These results show high selectivity of the sensorial platform due to the synergistic pairing of nanostructured GN and PMMA.