Biomimetic sensing platform unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11209418-B2
Application number	US-201816486583-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 21, 2018
Priority date	Feb 21, 2017
Publication date	Dec 28, 2021
Grant date	Dec 28, 2021

Abstract

The present invention provides a vapor-permeable flexible sensing platform unit comprising: a first porous membrane, wherein said membrane is substantially flexible and hydrophobic; and a volatile organic compounds (VOCs) sensor disposed on said membrane, the VOCs sensor comprising an electrode array and a conducting polymer porous film being in electric contact with said electrode array, wherein the VOCs sensor is insensitive to lateral strain. Further provided are a method of preparation of said platform unit and a lift-off, float-on (LOFO) method for the preparation of protonically doped polyaniline (PANI) thin films.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A vapor-permeable flexible sensing platform unit comprising:
a first porous membrane, wherein said membrane is substantially flexible and hydrophobic; and
a volatile organic compounds (VOCs) sensor disposed on said membrane, the VOCs sensor comprising an electrode array and a conducting polymer porous film being in electric contact with said electrode array, wherein the conducting polymer is a polyaniline (PANI) that is protonically doped, and wherein the VOCs sensor is insensitive to lateral strain.

2. The platform unit according to claim 1 , wherein the PANI is protonically doped with a dopant selected from a group consisting of hydrochloric acid, sodium bisulfite, salicylic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid, benzoic acid, phosphoric acid and any combination thereof.

3. The platform unit according to claim 1 , wherein the conducting polymer porous film has a vertically ordered porous structure.

4. The platform unit according to claim 3 , wherein the conducting polymer porous film has a mean pore size ranging from about 20 nm to about 500 nm and/or a porosity ranging from about 30% to about 80% of the total film volume.

5. The platform unit according to claim 1 , further comprising a pressure and temperature sensor, wherein said sensor comprises a self-healing porous film, comprising a self-healing polymer and conductive nanostructures selected from a group consisting of metallic nanoparticles capped with an organic coating, carbon-based nanostructures and combinations thereof.

6. The platform unit according to claim 5 , wherein said self-healing polymer is selected from a group consisting of poly(propylene-urethaneureaphenyl-disulfide), poly(urethanecarboxyphenyl-disulfide), and poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate)/poly(ethyleneimine).

7. The platform unit according to claim 5 , wherein the metallic nanoparticles are selected from a group consisting of Au, Ag, Ni, Co, Pt, Pd, Cu, Al, Zn, Fe, and combinations thereof and/or metal alloys selected from a group consisting of Au/Ag, Au/Cu, Au/Ag/Cu, Au/Pt, Au/Pd, Au/Ag/Cu/Pd, Pt/Rh, Ni/Co, and Pt/Ni/Fe and/or the carbon-based nanostructures are selected from a group consisting of carbon powder, carbon nanotubes, graphite and combinations thereof.

8. The platform unit according to claim 5 , wherein the self-healing porous film comprises nanofibers and/or has a mean pore size ranging from about 100 nm to about 5 μm and/or a porosity ranging from about 30% to about 80% of the total film volume.

9. The platform unit according to claim 5 , further comprising a second porous membrane disposed between the VOCs sensor and the pressure and temperature sensor, wherein said second porous membrane is electrically insulating and a third porous membrane, substantially covering the pressure and temperature sensor, wherein said third porous membrane is hydrophobic and self-cleaning.

10. The platform unit according to claim 9 , wherein said first porous membrane, said second porous membrane and/or said third porous membrane comprise a polymer selected from a group consisting of a fluoropolymer, aromatic polymer, polyamide, aramid, and combinations, and derivatives thereof.

11. The platform unit according to claim 9 , wherein at least one of said first porous membrane, said second porous membrane and said third porous membrane has a mean pore size ranging from about 20 nm to about 20 μm and/or a porosity ranging from about 30% to about 90% of a total membrane volume.

12. The platform unit according to claim 5 , which is coupled with (a) a detection device for measuring a change in at least one property of at least one of the VOCs sensor and the pressure and temperature sensor, the at least one property being selected from a group consisting of resistance, conductance, direct current (DC), alternating current (AC), capacitance, impedance, electrical potential, and voltage threshold and/or (b) a computing system configured for executing various algorithms stored on a non-transitory memory, the algorithms being selected from a group consisting of artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm, support vector machine (SVM), discriminant function analysis (DFA), principal component analysis (PCA), multi-layer perception (MLP), generalized regression neural network (GRNN), fuzzy inference system (FIS), self-organizing map (SOM), radial bias function (RBF), genetic algorithm (GAS), neuro-fuzzy system (NFS), adaptive resonance theory (ART), partial least squares (PLS), multiple linear regression (MLR), principal component regression (PCR), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), cluster analysis, nearest neighbor, Fisher linear discriminant analysis (FLDA), soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA), K-nearest neighbors (KNN), genetic algorithms, and fuzzy logic algorithms and canonical discriminant analysis (CDA).

13. A method for fabricating the vapor-permeable flexible sensing platform unit according to claim 1 , the method comprising:
i. providing the first porous membrane which is substantially flexible and hydrophobic;
ii. forming the electrode array;
iii. providing the conducting polymer porous film, wherein said conducting polymer is the PANI; and
iv. disposing the conducting polymer porous film on the electrode array or the first porous membrane, wherein the conducting polymer porous film is in electric contact with the electrode array, thereby forming the VOCs sensor;
wherein the step of providing a conducting polymer porous film comprises protonically doping the PANI to obtain a protonically doped PANI film.

14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein the step of providing the conducting polymer porous film comprises applying a solution of a conducting polymer onto a substrate having a non-uniform surface, wherein said step is performed by a process selected from a group consisting of spin-coating, dip-coating, drop-coating, and screen printing.

15. The method according to claim 14 , wherein said substrate comprises nanostructures epitaxially grown thereon, wherein the nanostructures are selected from a group consisting of nanowires, nanorods, nanotubes, nanoneedles and combinations thereof, and wherein said nanostructures comprise a material selected from a group consisting of ZnO, Co 3 O 4 , NiO, and Fe 2 O 3 .

16. The method according to claim 14 , wherein the substrate is a substantially rigid inorganic substrate comprising ZnO nanowires.

17. The method according to claim 16 , further comprising contacting the doped PANI film supported on the substrate with a portion of deionized water, thereby separating the doped PANI film from the substrate; dedoping the PANI film by replacing the portion of the water, being in contact with the PANI film with an additional portion of deionized water; and protonically doping the dedoped PANI film, wherein the protonical doping comprises contacting the dedoped PANI film with an acidic solution comprising an acid selected from a group consisting of hydrochloric acid, sodium bisulfite, salicylic acid, maleic acid, fumaric acid, benzoic acid, phosphoric acid and any combination thereof.

Assignees

• Technion Res & Dev Foundation

Inventors

• Haick Hossam
• Wu Weiwei

Classifications

• G01L19/0092

  Pressure sensor associated with other sensors, e.g. for measuring acceleration or temperature (G01L9/025, G01L9/045, G01L9/065, G01L9/085, G01L9/105, G01L9/125, G01L19/02, G01L19/04 take precedence; measuring two or more variable G01D21/02; temperature sensors with pressure compensation G01K1/26) · CPC title

• G01N27/125 Primary

  Composition of the body, e.g. the composition of its sensitive layer · CPC title

• G01K7/186

  using microstructures · CPC title

• G01N33/497 Primary

  of gaseous biological material, e.g. breath · CPC title

• G01N2033/4975

  Physics · mapped topic