Enhancing the Response of Chemocapacitors with Electrospun Nanofiber Films

Chemocapacitors are polymer coated Interdigital electrodes (IDE) where the transducer mechanism relies on the permittivity changes and swelling of the coating polymer (sensitive layer), usually in a form of a thin film, when exposed to an volatile organic compound (VOC). Despite several synthetic and natural polymers have already been produced by electrospinning, there have been fewer studies on rubbery polymers with low glass transition temperature (e.g. Poly(dimethyl siloxane) – PDMS). In this work we produce PDMS:PMMA 3:1 nanofiber (NF) layers by electrospinnig to be used as chemical sensitive layers on IDE chemocapacitors. The results show an enhanced response from the sensors with NFs with respect with sensors prepared with the same sensitive layers in the form of a homogeneous film.