Sensors and Actuators B 126 (2007) 361367

A highly selective chemical gas sensor based on functionalization of

multi-walled carbon nanotubes with poly(ethylene glycol)
Li Niu, Yanling Luo , Zhanqing Li
College of Chemistry & Materials Science, Shaanxi Normal University, 710062 Xian, PR China
Received 23 November 2006; received in revised form 15 March 2007; accepted 15 March 2007
Available online 23 March 2007

Abstract
A novel highly selective gas sensor was fabricated by a chemical modification of multi-walled carbon nanotubes containing carboxyl groups
(MWNT-COOH) with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) in the presence of N,N-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC). The resistance responsiveness of the
film samples against various organic vapors was investigated. The graft percentage and vibration spectra were characterized by a thermo-gravimetric
analyzer (TGA), a Fourier transform infrared spectroscope (FTIR) and a Raman spectrometer. The experimental results showed that the sensors
obtained displayed high chemical selectivity, fast response and good reproducibility or long stability to chloroform vapor, which are attributed to
the properties of MWNTs grafted PEG polymers. In addition, a hydrogen bond interaction and a swelling theory were utilized to illuminate the
responsiveness.
2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Multi-walled carbon nanotubes; Gas sensing properties; Poly(ethylene glycol); Functionalization

1. Introduction fabricated with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) may

Since carbon nanotubes (CNTs) were discovered in 1991 [1],
the scientific research activities related have undergone from
the initial scattered research to the gradual formation of a dis-
cipline system. In the past decade, the CNTs have emerged as
ideal candidates for nanoscale sensor devices and have attracted
more and more attention of physicists, chemists, material scien-
tists and engineers owing to their fascinating physicochemical
properties, especially their high surface areas, provided by their
central hollow cores and the outer walls for gas adsorption as
well as their tendency to change electrical properties at room
temperature in the presence of different gases [25].
The recovery time of the gas sensors based on single-walled
carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) is actually long [2,6] although the
majority of their performances are superior to the traditional
ones. In addition, since it is generally difficult to obtain pure
semiconducting or metallic SWNTs, this has an impact on the
systematic research of gas sensors [7,8]. Similarly, the gas sensor
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 29 85308442; fax: +86 29 85307774.
E-mail addresses: luoyanl@snnu.edu.cn, luoyl0401@yahoo.com.cn
(Y. Luo).
work at room temperature. However it receives little attention
due to a low sensitivity. This may be attributed to fewer percent-
ages of semiconducting nanotubes that can be modulated by gas
molecules in the MWNTs [8]. It is well known that MWNTs
contain both holes and electrons but at room temperature gen-
erally show metallic behavior with electrons as a majority of
carriers due to the overlapping conduction and valence bands
which vary with nanotube diameter and helicity. MWNTs can
show conductivity values in the semiconducting range, with the
energy band overlap varying according to the nanotube chirality
and the interaction between the different walls of the MWNT
[9,10]. But how to enhance the sensors selectivity to adapt to
the gas selective examination in a complex gas environment is
still an urgent problem to solve.
Polymers as attractive materials can be easily processed
and fabricated into solid-state forms such as thin films which
are often required in most applications [11]. However, the
insolubility of CNTs in solvents or polymers due to strong
intertube van der Waals attraction impedes their applications
[12]. At present, several studies focus on carbon nanotubes
functionalized with polymers to take full advantage of their
unique properties [1315]. The method of polymer function-
alization of the CNTs may be an important tool to improve the

0925-4005/$ see front matter 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.snb.2007.03.018
362 L. Niu et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 126 (2007) 361367
compatibility between organic polymers and CNTs and to pro-
vide the nanotube sensors with an ultrahigh sensitivity and
selectivity for gas detection. Besides, a number of modifica-
tions by doping or coating, either partly or completely, have
been suggested to further enhance the sensors properties of
CNTs [1619]. These good ideas inspired us to focus on func-
tionalized MWNTs with linear polymers to fabricate a novel
sensor. To achieve this objective, we actualized a chemical mod-
ification of MWNT-COOH with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) in
the presence of N,N-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC). There-
fore, a functionalized carbon nanotube/PEG sensing film sample
with homogeneous dispersion, good compatibility and improved
sensitivity and selectivity was obtained. This kind of sensor is
expected to be easily manufactured and to work at room tem-
perature.
2. Experimental
2.1. Materials
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes, functionalized with car-
boxyl groups on the surface (MWNT-COOH) and produced
by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method, were obtained
from the Chengdu Organic Chemistry Co. Ltd., Chinese
Academy Sciences, with a nominal outside diameter (OD)
of 815 nm, COOH content of 2.56 wt%, length of about
50 m, purity more than 95% and ash less than 1.5 wt%.
N,N-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) purchased from Acros
Organics, New Jersey, USA was dried under vacuum at room
temperature for 48 h. Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) with a molar
mass of 6000 was imported from Materials Aldrich Chemical
Co., Japan and dried under vacuum before use. Tetrahydrofuran
(THF) was refluxed with sodium and distilled. Other chemical
reagents were commercially available without further purifica-
tion before use.
2.2. Experimental procedures
Grafting of PEG onto carbon nanotubes (MWNT-g-PEG,
here g stands for grafted) was achieved by the direct conden-
sation reaction of carboxyl groups on the MWNTs surface with
terminal hydroxyl groups of the PEG using DCC as a condensing
agent.
The functionalization reaction procedures were as follows:
0.25 g of MWNT-COOH, 1.00 g PEG, 25 mg DCC and 20.0 ml
THF were heated at 60 C in a flask while the reaction mixture
was vigorously stirred under nitrogen protection for 48 h. After
that, the mixture was repeatedly precipitated into methyl alcohol
until no more polymers could be detected in the supernatant solu-
tion. The precipitator was decanted with deionized water and the
resulting sediment was carefully dried overnight. Subsequently,
Scheme 1. Preparation of a functionalized MWNT-g-PEG material.
1 mg of the pure MWNT-g-PEG sample obtained above was dis-
persed in 15 ml THF solution under ultrasonication for 30 min
to form a uniform black suspension. The preparation of a func-
tionalized MWNT-g-PEG material is illustrated in Scheme 1. By
contrast, the MWNT-COOH and PEG were directly mixed in a
THF solution at the same proportion as MWNT-g-PEG films
and stirred under ultrasonication to ensure a good dispersion.
Then a mixed MWNT-COOH/PEG paste was prepared [20].
The paste solution above was coated and deposited onto
a comb-like electrode (6 mm 6 mm) that was prepared by a
screen-printing technique, and a film was thus prepared. The
thickness of the film was approximately close to 1 m, as
evaluated by an environmental scanning electron microscope
(ESEM).
2.3. Measurement and characterization
The thin film elements prepared above were connected with a
detectormultimeter (Victor VC9808) to record the resistance
change of the thin films. The initial resistance (R0 ) was measured
in dry air at room temperature until it was stabilized. Then the
conductive thin film element was immediately transferred into an
airtight conical flask full of vapors of pure solvents at the bottom
and the resistance change of the thin films was recorded. Since
the measurement was conducted under saturated solvent vapors
and the pressure was the same inside the vessel, the distance
between the element and solvent surface was fixed at the same
height of about 2 cm for each sensing element. The measurement
of the electrical resistance-time response patterns of the element
to various solvent vapors was carried out at room temperature.
After stabilized for 5 min, the element was taken out rapidly and
the resistance variation was observed and recorded.
The functionalized MWNT-g-PEG samples were character-
ized using several instrumental techniques. A Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy (Equinox 55, FT-IR) made by Brucher
Co. of Germany was used to examine the types of functional
groups present on those samples. A thermo-gravimetric analyzer
(Q1000DSC + LNCS + FACS Q600SDT, TGA), manufactured
by the TA Co. of America, was used to determine the content of
the grafted PEG under a N2 flow at a heating rate of 10 C min1 .
An ALMEGA dispersive Raman spectrometer from Nicolet
Corp. of America was used to examine physical properties of
MWNTs like energy bands, carbon vibrations and structural
defects.
3. Results and discussion
TGA analysis was carried out on the carboxylated nan-
otubes to investigate the content of the PEG chains grafted onto
the MWNT-COOH surface. Fig. 1 shows the TGA curves of
MWNT-g-PEG, MWNT-COOH and PEG samples. It is clear
 L. Niu et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 126 (2007) 361367
Fig. 1. TGA traces of (a) MWNT-COOH, (b) MWNT-g-PEG and (c) pure PEG.
that a small weight loss of 3.24% appears in Fig. 1a, which
is ascribed to the decomposition of the carboxyl groups in
the MWNT-COOH. In contrast, a 100% weight loss of PEG
occurred near 400 C resulting from thermal decomposition of
the PEG sample (Fig. 1c). The weight loss of the MWNT-g-
PEG is mainly due to the depolymerization of PEG chains,
which occupied 75.93% (see also Fig. 1b), demonstrating that
the number of PEG chains grafted on MWNTs can be estimated
as 75.93% (the method can be referred to our previous work
[20]).
It is worth noting that this result is slightly higher than that
in the literature [21]. It is likely that un-reacted PEG chains are
so tightly entangled with grafted chains and that they remain
attached even after repeated washing.
Although TGA experiment informs on how many PEG chains
were grafted onto the MWNTs, it does not provide any strong
evidences of chemical attachment of PEG chains onto the func-
tionalized MWNT-COOH surface. FTIR spectra can display that
the PEG chains were chemically attached to the functionalized
MWNT-COOH. Fig. 2 presents the IR spectra of MWNT-g-
PEG, MWNT-COOH and PEG. A weak peak at 1740 cm1 is
attributable to a carbonyl (C O) stretching mode of carboxylic
acid groups in pristine MWNT-COOH, and a peak at 3400 cm1
Fig. 2. FTIR spectra of (a) pristine MWNT-COOH, (b) pure PEG, (c) MWNT-
g-PEG and (d) mixed MWNT-COOH/PEG.
363
is ascribed to OH stretching vibration, indicating that COOH
groups are present at the ends of the MWNTs, which helps in the
functionalization of the MWNT-COOH. These peaks still exist
and become strong in the MWNT-g-PEG sample of Fig. 2d.
Furthermore, the intensities of the CH stretching frequencies
at 2860 and 2920 cm1 corresponding to the alkyl groups are
more intense in the MWNT-g-PEG than in the pristine MWNT-
COOH. These results preliminarily indicate the presence of
significant carbonyl groups chemically attached to an ester bond,
that is to say, the PEG molecules are covalently bound to the
MWNT-COOH [22,23]. In addition, the spectrum of MWNT-
g-PEG samples showed a vibration band characteristic of PEG,
a sharp peak at 1107 cm1 corresponding to the ether group of
PEG, while it is slightly weakened in the MWNT-g-PEG sample.
A wide peak at about 3440 cm1 is assigned to the OH vibra-
tion band of PEG [24,25]. The existence of the two peaks at 3438
and 1731 cm1 in a MWNT-COOH/PEG sample is due to the
co-contribution of MWNT-COOH and PEG or/and the forma-
tion of a hydrogen bond between MWNTCOOH and oxygen
atoms of PEG molecules.
Raman spectra can further provide qualitative information on
the status of sidewall functionalization, which corresponds to
the change in properties for MWNTs and therefore displays that
the PEG chains were chemically attached to the functionalized
MWNTs [26]. As shown in Fig. 3, the Raman signal of polymer-
functionalized MWNTs is strongly dependent on the grafted
polymer species and their structures [27]. For a MWNT-COOH
sample, a strong peak at 1571 cm1 (G band) represents a high-
frequency E2g Raman scattering mode of sp2 -hybridized carbon
material, bonded carbon atoms in a two-dimensional hexagonal
lattice similar to the vibration of carbon atoms in a graphitic
layer. A disordered structure induced peak at 1336 cm1 (D
band) may be associated with the presence of defects in the
hexagonal graphitic layer. The peak intensity of the MWNT-g-
PEG was slightly stronger than that of the MWNT-COOH owing
to an energy transfer between the MWNT-COOH and the PEG
layer, or to the influence of the grafted PEG coating on the dis-
aggregation and electronic properties of the MWNT-COOH, or
Fig. 3. Raman spectra of MWNT-COOH, MWNT-g-PEG, mixed MWNT-
COOH/PEG and pure PEG.
364 L. Niu et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 126 (2007) 361367
to some damage of the graphite sheet caused by the sonication
treatment, as well as the production of field disturbance and
physical strain in the graphite skeleton caused by the polymer
coating, which shows up as an enhancement of the vibration
bands [23,28]. Because the PEG layer was transparent, Raman
signals assigned to the neat PEG were not observed in the spec-
trum of the MWNT-g-PEG and mixed MWNT-COOH/PEG.
But the characteristic absorption peaks of the solution-blended
MWNT-COOH/PEG composite were strongly attenuated due
to the existence of PEG, indicating the MWNT-g-PEG sample
was completely different from the MWNT-COOH/PEG one in
terms of the Raman characteristics. It might also be due to a
difference in energy transfer between the MWNT-COOH and
the PEG layer or the influence of the grafted PEG on the elec-
tronic properties of the MWNT-COOH [23]. The strength of
adherence of the polymer chains to the surface of CNTs via a
hydrophobic interaction can also be seen from Raman spectra.
The presence of the polymer grafting or mixing substantially
affects the carbon atoms, which is indicative of strong attractive
forces between the macromolecule and the graphite sheet [28].
The anchoring of the PEG onto the carbon nanotubes can
impart its compatibility and transfer the hydrophobic surface of
carbon nanotubes into hydrophilic, and greatly improve respon-
siveness and reversibility of the materials. We compared the
response of the MWNT-g-PEG composite film to various sol-
vent vapors with those of a mixed MWNT-COOH/PEG and a
CB-g-PEG film (a carbon black grafted PEG, whose preparation
procedure was recorded in our previous work [20]), as depicted
in Fig. 4. It can be seen that all the three systems exhibit the high-
est response intensity or responsivity to chloroform vapor. This
implies that the excellent responsiveness is strongly combined
with the nature of the PEG matrix itself. Herein, the relative resis-
tance responsivity is defined as S = log[(Rmax Rrt )/Rrt ], where
Rrt and Rmax are an original resistance and a maximal resistance
of the film upon exposed to various solvent vapors, respectively.
It can also be seen from Fig. 4 that the responsivities of the
MWNT-g-PEG system toward chloroform, ethanoic acid and
water are about 7, 2 and 1 orders of magnitude, respectively.
Fig. 4. Relative resistance responsivity (S = log[(Rmax Rrt )/Rrt ]) of MWNT-g-
PEG, mixed MWNT-COOH/PEG and CB-g-PEG films against various organic
vapors.
However, only very small responsivities to any other solvent
vapors were observed, and the film did not respond basically
against nonpolar solvent vapors, for example, n-hexane. All
these manifest that the MWNT-g-PEG sensor has a stronger
antijamming ability and high sensitivity to chloroform vapor,
and is considered to be an ideal candidate for potential selective
sensor applications.
The difference in response between the CNTs and CB seems
astonishing at the first sight (see also Fig. 4). The MWTN-g-
PEG film shows responsivity of 2 orders of magnitude higher
than that of the CB-g-PEG one to chloroform vapor. The CB-g-
PEG film shows good response to chloroform, acetone and THF
analytes, whereas the MWNT-g-PEG thin film displays high
response only to chloroform vapor. This phenomenon may be
associated with the differences in physical properties of carbon
nanotubes and carbon black conductive particles. A high polar
surface energy component was found for carbon nanotubes to
significantly differ from that of CB particles [24], leading to
the different interaction of carbon nanotubes and carbon black
joined with the PEG. Moreover, the MWNTs with centrally hol-
low core structures permit the analytes to permeate the polymers
from both inner-tubes and outer-tubes, thus swelling the poly-
mers rapidly. Additionally, it is likely that when the interlayer
interactions of nanotubes were introduced, the MWNTs could
be induced changes from metal to semiconductor, resulting in
an increase in resistance [29]. Of course, whether chloroform
can induce a change in conductive performances by adsorption
on the MWNT surface is still needed to demonstrate in detail.
Carbon black particles are, nevertheless, not provided with this
trait.
In fact, the PEG chain consisting of the hydrophobic ethy-
lene units and hydrophilic oxygen atoms may be responsible for
the unique characteristics of the composite samples. This struc-
tural trait allows formation of inter- and intramolecular hydrogen
bonds [30]. The existence of the active sites also accounts for
its high solubility in water as well as in a wide range of organic
solvents [31]. From the standpoint of thermodynamics, the pene-
trating capacity of small molecules depends on the solubility and
the diffusibility in a polymer film, and has a close relation with
the fundamental nature of the molecules such as size and shape
as well as intermolecular action. When massive small molecules
enter the polymer network or diffuse into the film, the interval
between polymer segments is increased. Thus an entanglement
interaction and the viscosity of the polymer are reduced. This fur-
ther increases the mobility of the polymeric segments and causes
a change in the volume of the system. In this case the polymer
materials appear swelling and dissolvation so that the orig-
inal structure or configuration of the film will be destroyed. At
the same time, the volume of polymers increases along with the
swelling, and the intertube distance between CNTs is enlarged,
which makes the conducting network broken, leading to a large
increase in electric resistance of the film [32].
It is worth noting that the swelling behavior of PEG chains
wrapped around CNTs is very different from a pure PEG matrix.
The former is concerned with the influence of the interactions
on the surface of nanotubes with PEG. The interaction among
polymers differs from the latter that is easy to aggregate. So
 L. Niu et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 126 (2007) 361367
Scheme 2. Schematic representation of a possible structural model of MWNT-g-PEG suggested for explaining the responsive mechanism.
only the desolvation ability to polymers is not a sufficient cri-
terion to throw light on the aforementioned phenomenon. Up
to now, there has been no extensive theoretical investigation on
the interaction between polymers and CNTs [33]. One view-
point suggests that polymer molecular structures and atomic
interactions at CNT interfaces are expected to significantly influ-
ence the properties of sensor systems [34]. The other is that
the weak electrostatic or noncovalent interactions between the
highly delocalized electron system of nanotubes and polymers
may affect molecular recognition of PEG to solvent molecules.
For covalently functionalized CNTs, the polymer is individually
anchored onto the tube surface, forming a nanoscale layer of
coverage (thickness dependent on polymer amount), especially
in the case of higher grafting-polymer proportions. A hopping
mechanism is responsible for intertube charge transfer between
CNTs and an intertube modulation of the CNTs network in lieu
of a conductivity change [35]. This elicits us to conclude that the
PEG molecules form an assembly domain around MWNTs with
a large radius. Scheme 2 is a plausible structure model suggested
to explain the responsive mechanism.
In our work, although water and ethanoic acid are the same
good solvents of PEG as chloroform, they induce no excel-
lent response. Herein, hydrogen bonds may play an important
role. Chloroform vapor molecules, as a good solvent of PEG,
can enter the MWNT-g-PEG film and permeate the polymer
region between nanotubes. Because of a weak hydrogen bond,
the permeation of chloroform molecules weakens the hydrogen
bond interaction between polymer molecules and nanotubes,
and speeds the motion and swelling of polymer chains, and thus
breaks the conductive path, leading to an increase in resistance.
The process is presented in models (a) and (b) in Scheme 2.
However, solvent vapor molecules such as water and ethanoic
acid have an ability to build strong hydrogen bonds with PEG
[36]. Therefore, they cannot effectively bate the hydrogen bond
between polymer matrices and increase the mobility of poly-
mer chains. On the other hand, some observations suggest that
H2 O could form bridge-bonds via two hydrogen bonds between
the oxygen atoms of two neighboring PEG chains. The energy
difference between one and two hydrogen bonds was found to
be 34 kJ mol1 [37]. This structure could limit the swelling of
PEG. Based on the above viewpoint, it is reasonable to explain
the weak response of the film to water and ethanoic acid. It is
just because of the strong hydrogen bond interaction between
365
these analyte molecules and PEG molecules that decreases the
desorption ability of the films, and thus a poor reversibility is
obtained in Fig. 5a.
In the case of a mixed MWNT-COOH/PEG system, although
PEG may interacted with MWNT-COOH by hydrogen bonds,
abundant PEG polymers tend to aggregate by themselves. Con-
sequently, there may be a phase separation feature between PEG
and MWNT-COOH, deciding an unhomogeneous dispersion of
PEG chains in MWNTs. They tend to collect and condense into
islands of round patches and are not easy to form wrapping lay-
ers [21]. The FTIR and Raman spectra in Figs. 2 and 3 seem to
show the difference between MWNT-COOH/PEG and MWNT-
g-PEG. So the solvent vapors can swell the PEG chains but
cannot destroy the electric conductive network. The responsiv-
ity of such a film is 5 orders of magnitude lower than that of the
functionalized MWNT-g-PEG thin sample and the selectivity is
reduced. Its different response to good solvent vapors mainly
depends upon the PEG performance.
In Fig. 5, we have contrasted response patterns of the sensors
based on the functionalized MWNT-g-PEG and mixed MWNT-
COOH/PEG materials. The resistance of the MWNT-g-PEG
sensing film drastically increased over 7 orders of magnitude
within 1 s upon exposed to chloroform vapor. When it was trans-
ferred from the solvent vapor into dry air, the electrical resistance
returned to the original value rapidly, showing a very big
improvement in restoring performance. This is also attributed to
the weak hydrogen bond interaction between chloroform vapor
and polymers, which results in an abrupt adsorption of ana-
lyte molecules in a short time. However, in the case of a mixed
MWNT-COOH/PEG sensing film, the adsorption equilibrium
of the same analytes was not still achieved within about 1800 s,
and the resistance could not return to the original value. This
further suggests that the response speed and reversibility of the
former are apparently superior to the latter. So a highly selective
chemical gas sensor based on the functionalized MWNTs with
poly(ethylene glycol) can be obtained.
A good reproducibility or long-term stability is another
important parameter of the gas sensor material. Fig. 6 clearly
shows that the sensor from the MWNT-g-PEG conductive mate-
rial exhibits a better resistance reproducibility and stability after
seven times cycles alternately exposing to chloroform vapor and
a dry air. Over a 12,000 s period, the maximal variation in the
baseline resistivity is less than 25%. Such minor shifts did not
366 L. Niu et al. / Sensors and Actuators B 126 (2007) 361367
Fig. 5. Typical electrical responses of (a) mixed MWNT-COOH/PEG and (b) MWNT-g-PEG films to chloroform, acetic acid and water vapors.
Fig. 6. Reproducibility of electric resistance of MWNT-g-PEG films on seven
repeated exposures to chloroform vapor at room temperature.
significantly affect the response patterns and the use of the sen-
sors. And the sensing films can be reused at least 10 times in this
way. These results imply that the MWNT-g-PEG material is a
well promising vapor sensor candidate with excellent stability.
4. Conclusion
We have demonstrated that the chemical functionalization
for MWNTs could impart the remarkable gas sensing properties
toward chloroform detection. The MWNT-g-PEG sensor sam-
ples were provided with high sensitivity, excellent selectivity
and good reproducibility or long stability. So the modification
of the electronic structure of MWNTs by the chemical func-
tionalization provided a valuable route for the development of
advanced sensor materials. To explain the selective responsive-
ness, we suggest the swelling behavior of PEG chains wrapped
around MWNTs as well as the interaction among PEG chains,
MWNTs and analytes may play an important role in the gas
sensing. The change in resistance of the films is caused by the
intertube distance change induced by polymer swelling via gas
absorption. On the other hand, the response of the MWNT-g-
PEG film to chloroform differed from that to any other solvents,
which is attributed to hydrogen bond interaction between solvent
molecules and PEG chains. This interaction is greatly affected
by properties of MWNTs. We also have designed a structural
model of MWNTs by PEG functionalization to further explain
the difference in both MWNT-g-PEG and MWNT/PEG systems.
In summary, we have developed a simple MWNT-COOH func-
tionalized with a PEG network sensor platform for organic vapor
detection at room temperature. The advances made here shall
pave the way to developing carbon nanotube sensors for highly
sensitive and specific molecular detection.
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Biographies
Li Niu received her degree of bachelor in chemistry at the Yanan University in
2002. Since 2004 she has been studying at the School of Chemistry and Materials
Science of Shaanxi Normal University to receive her degree of master. Her cur-
rent fields of interest focus on the preparation, modification and characterization
of carbon nanotubes/polymer composite materials as well as their applications
to sensors.
Yanling Luo is currently a professor of the School of Chemistry and Materials
Science of Shaanxi Normal University. He finished the post-graduate course at
the Institute of Materials Science & Engineering of East China University of
Chemical Technology in 1995, receiving his masters degree. His work focuses
on the preparation, modification, processing of functional composite materials
for heat-sensitive, bio-sensitive and chemical sensitive sensors, and assembly
and functionalization characterization for nano-conductive composite materials
and organicinorganic hybrid.
Zhanqing Li received his degree of bachelor in chemistry at the Weinan Nor-
mal University in 2003. Since 2005 he has been studying at the School of
Chemistry and Materials Science of Shaanxi Normal University to receive his
degree of master. His current fields of interest focus on the preparation, mod-
ification, characterization and applications of conductive polymer composite
materials.