Fabrication of Palladium-decorated Polypyrrole and Graphene Electrodes for Sensor Applications

Abstract

There has been tremendous research for the devolopment of novel materials with excellent properties and performances. In particular, composite materials, consist of inorganic and organic component, not only display synergetic effect between inorganic (high performance) and organic (high stability) but also meet the economic and environmental demands. Among them, palladium contained carbon-based composite materials have attracted enormous attention in research and industry fields due to the high hydrogen reactivity and catalytic performance. Although blending technique of inorganic nanomaterials as filler and carbon materials already applied for various part, there is still lack of investigation on the decoration of inorganic materials on the carbon materials. This dissertation demonstrates that polypyrrole/polyacrylonitrile nanofibers using electrospinning and VDP (vapor deposition polymerization) and graphene thin layer using CVD (chemical vapor deposition) were fabricated as conductive substrates, and then, composite materials based on palladium nanostructure synthesized via electrodeposition process. These synthesized composite materials present improved electric and chemical properties, enabling to be applied for various sensor applications. When introduced to transducer materials for sensor device, it provides the fast response and high stability owing to the synergetic effect. In addition, increasing surface area from controllable palladium nanostructure induces the amplified interaction with target materials and facilitates realization of the high sensitive sensor.