Sensing behavior of metal-free porphyrin and zinc phthalocyanine thin film towards xylene-styrene and hcl vapors in planar optical waveguide

The sensing behavior of a thin film composed of metal-free 5, 10, 15, 20-tetrakis (p-hydroxy phenyl) porphyrin and zinc phthalocyanine complex towards m-xylene, styrene, and HCl vapors in a homemade planar optical waveguide (POWG), was studied at room temperature. The thin film was deposited on the surface of potassium ion-exchanged glass substrate, using vacuum spin-coating method, and a semiconductor laser light (532 nm) as the guiding light. Opto-chemical changes of the film exposing with hydrochloric gas, m-xylene, and styrene vapor, were analyzed firstly with UV-Vis spectroscopy. The fabricated POWG shows good correlation between gas exposure response and absorbance change within the gas concentration range 10–1500 ppm. The limit of detection calculated from the logarithmic calibration curve was proved to be 11.47, 21.08, and 14.07 ppm, for HCl gas, m-xylene, and styrene vapors, respectively. It is interesting to find that the film can be recovered to the initial state with trimethylamine vapors after m-xylene, styrene exposures as well as HCl exposure. The gas-film interaction mechanism was discussed considering protonation and π-π stacking with planar aromatic analyte molecules.