Mesoporous Tyrosine Functionalized BTC-ZnO Composite for Highly Selective Capacitive CO Sensor

Drop-casting is a simple deposition technique where a slurry-like solution of nanomaterial is coated on small substrates, which are then allowed to dry under controlled temperature and pressure ambience. The present work focuses on the tyrosine functionalized benzene-tri-carboxyamide (Tyr-BTC) and ZnO composite based sensor deposited using drop-cast method for sensing carbon monoxide (CO) at room temperature. The composition of the composite surface was varied by altering the molar concentration of the constituents. The performance of the mesoporous structures in room temperature gas sensing was studied for the CO concentration range of 5–300 ppm in synthetic air. The highly amplified gas sensing response of approximately 94% at 300 ppm of CO by Tyr-BTC-ZnO in molar concentration 2:3 of Tyr-BTC-ZnO was observed. The improvement in the capacitance change, quicker response time, good linearity and reversibility was attributed to the synergistic effect between ZnO and tyrosine functionalized BTC.