Selectivity tailoring in molecular recognition based sensors: enhancement of metalloporphyrins sensitivity to Hydrogen bond

Metalloporphyrins shown interesting properties as sensitive material for chemical sensors. In particular, they shown brilliant behaviours in electronic nose applications. From the point of view of this kind of applications it is necessary to differentiate sensor selectivity. In this paper, a method to enhance the selectivity of metalloporphyrins to hydrogen bond interacting compounds is illustrated. Furthermore, the structural modification of metalloporphyrin results in highly porous spatial arrangement of molecular films. This feature produces an improvement also at sensor sensitivity level. Modified metalloporphyrins were used to coat thickness shear mode resonators. The sensors were tested to different gases and results confirmend the enhanced responses to hydrogen bond interacting compounds such as alcohols.