A novel triazine-bearing calix[4]arene: Design, synthesis and gas sensing affinity for volatile organic compounds

Abstract

A novel triazine-calix[4]arene conjugate was designed and synthesized with the aim to study gas sensing against volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as dichloromethane, chloroform and carbon tetrachloride. This novel compound was fully characterized by spectroscopic techniques such as FTIR,H-1 and C-13 NMR along with HRMS and BET analysis. The triazine based calix[4]arene organic materials were fabricated onto quartz glasses and quartz crystal substrates to form a thin film chemical sensor element by using Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. Quartz Crystal Microbalance, UV-Visible Spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy techniques were employed to characterize all these LB thin film layers. Fick's Equations were used for analyzing the swelling process of LB thin film sensor and diffusion coefficient values of organic vapours for swelling were obtained. The initial experiments have revealed that new triazine appended calix[4]arene derivative exhibited an effective chemical gas sensor characteristic with a large response to dichloromethane vapour.