Porphyrinoids Functionalized Hybrid Zinc Oxide Nanomaterials for Gas-Sensing Applications

Abstract

Hybrid materials made of organic and inorganic elemengts are gaining interest in many technological fields from light conversion to sensors. In this paper, the case of porphyrnoids and ZnO nanoparticles is considered. These materials are suitable to be applied with transducers based on different principles and the resulting sensors show the interplay between light sensitivity and chemical sensitivity and selectivity. These properties result in sensors behaving rather differently respect to the individual constituents of the hybrid material. Among the routes to prepare hybrid materials we investigated two approaches: the first based on a one pot growth and the second, more conventional, where the organic layer is applied to the well-formed nanoparticles. Preparation protocols and porphyrinoids structure influence the overall sensing properties of materials, thus, these sensors show promise to be implemented as an electronic-nose that combines selectivity to strong electron donors and broad-selectivity towards the other classes of chemicals. Some study cases are reported where real context applications have been simulated to highlight the potentialities of these materials as alternative to porphyrin thin films.