Abstract

Abstract Gas sensing composites were fabricated using polybenzoxazine-based activated carbon aerogel as a conductive filler. The activated carbon aerogel is a nano-porous material, which has high pore volume of 0.57 cm³/g and surface area of 917 m²/g. The activated carbon aerogel/polybutadiene composite displayed good response of 11.2 and 6.7 to toluene and n-hexane, respectively, compared to those of graphite/polybutadiene composite. The activated carbon aerogel/polybutadiene composite also showed high sensitivity of 3.09 × 10² ppm^-1 to toluene. However, the sensitivity of activated carbon aerogel/polybutadiene composite drastically decreased to 1.99 ppm^-1 and zero when exposed to acetone and water, respectively. Contrarily, when polyvinyl alcohol was used as a matrix, the sensitivity was about 4.19 ppm^-1 to water. While the composite was found to be not sensitive to toluene. The activated carbon aerogel/polybutadiene composite also showed good recovery as the electrical resistance came back to the original value within minutes when exposed to nitrogen gas.