Elaboration and Investigation of response mechanism in polymer- carbon nanotube composite vapor sensors

Conductive polymer composite sensors have shown great potential in identifying gaseous analytes. To more thoroughly understand the physical and chemical mechanisms of this type of sensor, a mathematical model was developed to investigate the response mechanism in polymer–carbon nanotube resistive vapor sensors. It is investigated that resistance change is determined with the concentration of vapors diffused into composite thin film, due to matrix swelling and increasing the inter- tube distances causing electrical resistance change .Matrix swelling strongly depends on polymer- analyte interaction. Our objective is to make a fundamental relationship between these thermodynamic properties with sensor response. This model will guide the improvement of the design and fabrication of conductive polymer composite sensors for detecting different organic vapors