Synthesis and Characterization of Carbon
Nanotubes Composites
Carbon Nanotubes, nanocomposites, gas sensing
Multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were prepared by Chemical vapor deposition method then MWCNTs/ decorated ZnO, MWCNTs/decorated TiO2 were prepared by sol gel method, after that MWCNTs/ZnO/polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and MWCNTs/decorated TiO2 /PVA nanocomposites have been prepared by casting method. The samples have been tested as chemical sensors and detailed study on the effect of the weight ratio of MWCNTs and metal oxide on gas sensitivity is presented. X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with EDX analysis were used to demonstrate the morphology, diameter , crystalline size of MWCNTs and metal oxide. On the other hand, the chemical sensing properties of MWCNTs, MWCNTs/ ZnO, MWCNTs/ TiO2 nanocomposites were investigated by exposure to methanol vapor at concentration of40 ppm. The sensing experiment proved that the sensitivity of the composites increase due to increase of the amount of metal oxide and the highest value in the sensitivity was for the composite with 99% of TiO2.