Effect of Plasma Treatment on Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for the Detection of H2S and SO2.docVIP

Sensors 2012, 12, 9375-9385; doi:10.3390/s120709375 OPEN ACCESS sensors ISSN 1424-8220 /journal/sensors Article Effect of Plasma Treatment on Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes for the Detection of H2S and SO2 Xiaoxing Zhang *, Bing Yang, Xiaojing Wang and Chenchen Luo State Key Laboratory of Transmission Distribution Equipment and Power System Safety and New Technology, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: zhxx@; Tel.: +86-136-4055-1418; Fax: +86-23-6510-2442. Received: 6 April 2012; in revised form: 27 June 2012 / Accepted: 28 June 2012 / Published: 9 July 2012 Abstract: H2S and SO2 are important characteristic gases of partial discharge (PD) generated by latent insulated defects in gas insulated switchgear (GIS). The detection of H2S and SO2 is of great significance in the diagnosis and assessment of the operating status of GIS. In this paper, we perform experiments on the gas sensitivity of unmodified multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) and those modified by atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) air plasma at different times (30, 60 and 120 s) for H2S and SO2, respectively. The results show that the sensitivity and response time of modified MWNTs to H2S are both improved, whereas the opposite effects are observed for SO2. The modified MWNTs have almost zero sensitivity to SO2. Thus, the MWNTs modified by atmospheric pressure DBD air plasma present good selectivity to H2S, and have great potential in H2S detection. Keywords: carbon nanotubes; gas sensor; modification 1. Introduction Gas insulated switchgear (GIS) has been widely used in power systems due to its compact structure, small footprint and high reliability. However, some latent insulation faults in GIS are inevitable in the progress of manufacturing, assembly and operation, resulting in different degrees of partial discharge (PD) which lead to