April 27th, 2015

The results enabled the designing and production of an efficient sensor that has applications in rubber industry, textile and agriculture.
Formaldehyde is a toxic gas that diffuses into the body through skin, digestive system and respiration. It has some effects on the body, including primary irritation of the skin, eyes and respiratory mucosa.
The aim of the research was to introduce a new sensor to detect and remove formaldehyde in the environment. To this end, the adsorption of formaldehyde on carbon nanotubes was studied through numerous computational methods.
According to the researchers, the use of nanotubes in the production of the sensor increases the reaction rate of the sensor. In addition, accurate and reliable designs significantly decrease the production cost, and better investment can be carried out in order to commercialize the product.
In this modeling, all possible situations for the adsorption of formaldehyde molecule on the nanotube were taken into consideration and sorption energy was calculated. One of the assumptions to modify and increase the sorption capacity of the molecule was the functionalization of carbon nanotube by palladium atoms. The ability of the nanostructure was studied in the detection and sorption of formaldehyde.
Calculations showed that the sorption energy of the functionalized carbon nanotube is about 12 times of the pure nanotube. The results showed that carbon nanotube functionalized with palladium can be used as an appropriate sensor for the sorption and removal of formaldehyde.
Results of the research have been published in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, vol. 212, issue 1, 2014, pp. 39-44.