Multilayer films of layered double hydroxide/polyaniline and their ammonia sensing behavior

This paper reports the fabrication of layered double hydroxide (LDH)/conductive polymer multilayer films by alternate assembly of exfoliated ZnAl-LDH nanosheets and polyaniline (PANI) on silicon wafer substrates using the layer-by-layer (LBL) deposition technology. UV-vis absorption spectroscopy indicates a stepwise and regular growth of the (LDH/PANI)n multilayer films upon increasing deposition cycles. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) demonstrate that the surfaces of the films are microscopy smooth and uniform with a thickness of 2 nm per bilayer. Furthermore, the resulting (LDH/PANI)n multilayer films possess high selectively response to ammonia at room temperature. The presence of LDH nanosheets plays a critical role on the gas sensing for the pure PANI film has very low response to ammonia. The LBL assembly process based on LDH combines the conducting polymer and nano-inorganic material, which provides opportunities to develop new inorganic-organic films for gas sensing.