The influence of the surface morphologies of Langmuir Blodgett (LB) thin films of porphyrins on their gas sensing properties

In this work, 2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-Octaethyl-21H,23H-porphine (OEP) in its free base form and metalated with iron (III) chloride (FeOEP), magnesium(II) (MgOEP) and cobalt(II) (CoOEP) have been used to fabricate Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) thin films. Using the surface pressure-surface area (Pi-A) isotherm graphs optimum conditions for thin film deposition have been determined and by changing the deposition parameters various thin films have been deposited. Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) system was used to investigate their gas sensing performances during exposure to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) including chloroform, benzene and toluene. The surface properties have been investigated using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and analyzed together with the QCM results to understand the effect of the surface properties on gas sensing mechanism. It is observed that larger surface area leads to higher response in gas sensing applications in terms of resonance frequency change. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.