Enhanced ZIF-8-enabled colorimetric CO₂ sensing through dye-precursor synthesis

Journal Article · Tue Oct 04 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Sensors and Actuators. B, Chemical

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2022.132783· OSTI ID:2278642

Davey, Adrian K. ^[1]; Li, Zhou ^[1]; Lefton, Natalie ^[1]; Leonhardt, Branden E. ^[1]; Pourghaderi, Alireza ^[1]; McElhany, Stuart ^[1]; Popple, Derek ^[2]; Dai, Chunhui ^[2]; Kahn, Salman ^[2]; Dods, Matthew N. ^[1]; Zettl, Alex ^[2]; Carraro, Carlo ^[1]; Maboudian, Roya ^[1]

---

1. University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
2. University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States); University of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Kavli Energy NanoSciences Institute

The accumulation of carbon dioxide (CO₂) within enclosed spaces, along with volatile organic compounds, under certain humidity, temperature, and ventilation conditions is associated with detrimental human health symptoms such as fatigue. Color-based chemical sensing is a promising approach to detect CO₂ levels relevant to indoor air quality through producing fast, quantifiable output visible to the naked eye. In a prior work, a colorimetric gas sensor was fabricated through synthesizing the metal-organic framework, ZIF-8, as the adsorbent, followed by post-synthetic mixing with a dye, phenol red (PSP), and primary amine, ethylenediamine (ED). While this sensor (termed PSP-ED/ZIF-8) maintained its structural integrity in atmospheric conditions and exhibited an increasing fuchsia-to-yellow color change with increasing CO₂ levels in dry environment, the colorimetric response greatly suffered in the presence of humid CO₂. Here in this work, a significantly improved colorimetric CO₂ sensor (referred to as ED/PSP:ZIF-8) is accomplished through directly incorporating phenol red in the ZIF-8 metal and linker precursor solutions and then blending with ethylenediamine. MATLAB-generated color distributions and in-situ ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopic studies quantitatively demonstrate an enhanced colorimetric gas response of ED/PSP:ZIF-8 compared to that of PSP-ED/ZIF-8 across an important range of CO₂ for indoor air quality monitoring (500 – 3500 ppm) and across a range of humidity. The new sensor also exhibits high selectivity to CO₂ compared to select volatile organic compounds, such as acetone and ethanol, which contribute to human health symptoms experienced indoors. The enhanced performance is attributed to the proposed incorporation of phenol red within ZIF-8, while maintaining the chemical stability of the MOF.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division (MSE)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231; SC0019992
• OSTI ID: 2278642
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1891359
• Journal Information: Sensors and Actuators. B, Chemical, Journal Name: Sensors and Actuators. B, Chemical Vol. 374; ISSN 0925-4005
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Indoor air quality
UV-Vis
Volatile organic compound
dye-precursor synthesis
in-situ ultraviolet-visible
spectroscopy