Effect of plasma treatment on multi-walled carbon nanotubes for the detection of H2S and SO2

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 SO2is 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. © 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.