Vapor
phase polymerization has been used for the synthesis of polypyrrole-coated
filter paper (PPy-FP) using a simple experimental setup. In addition,
we have doped the polymer-coated filter papers with hydrochloric acid
(HCl), camphorsulfonic acid (CSA), and p-toluenesulfonic
acid (PTSA) to prepare HCl-PPy-FP, CSA-PPy-FP, and PTSA–PPy-FP,
respectively. These samples were characterized by scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), attenuated total
reflectance–Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR),
energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, and powder X-ray diffraction
(PXRD) techniques. The prepared PPy-coated filter papers have been
used for ammonia vapor sensing studies at room temperature. The sensing
device of the hybrid filter papers was developed by pasting Cu strips
as electrodes. It has been observed that doping enhances the conductivity
from 1.78 × 10–5 to 3.34 × 10–5 S/cm. The sensing performance also improved on doping, and among
the developed sensors, HCl-PPy-FP shows the best result. The limit
of detection (LOD) value for PPy-FP is found to be 13 ppm, which has
been improved up to 5.2 ppm for HCl-PPy-FP. Doping increases the delocalization
along the PPy chain to generate more active sites. The fabricated
devices are flexible, easy to handle, and cost-effective.
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