Petryshak V. Development of highly sensitive optical sensors of harmful gases (SO2, NO2, and CO2) based on liquid crystal compounds doped by carbon nanotubes

This thesis is focused on the research and development of nanocomposites based on cholesteric-nematic mixtures, doped by single, double and multiwall carbon nanotubes for optical sensors. A new nanocomposite based on cholesteric-nematic mixtures doped by carbon nanotubes that have a high sensitivity for SO2, NO2 and CO2 was developed. The spectral characteristics of the developed nanocomposites under the influence of these gasses were investigated. It was found that the gas molecules change the spectral characteristics of cholesteric-nematic mixtures doped by carbon nanotubes. The composition of the nanocomposite that detects the maximum sensitivity to each gas was determined. Highly sensitive optical sensor of harmful gasses (SO2, CO2 and NO2) were developed based on this new nanocomposite. The developed sensor has high metrological performance and error in accuracy of measurement does not exceed 0.5%