Silver Nanoparticles Anchored on Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes via a Conjugated Polymer for Enhanced Sensing Applications

[Image: see text] Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are candidate matrices for loading metal nanoparticles (NPs) for sensor and catalytic applications owing to their high electron conductivity and mechanical strength, larger surface area, excellent chemical stability, and ease of surface modification. The performance of the formed NP/SWCNT composites is dependent on the NP size, the physical and chemical interactions between the components, and the charge transfer capabilities. Anchoring metal complexes onto the surface of SWCNTs through noncovalent interactions is a viable strategy for achieving high-level metal dispersion and high charge transfer capacities between metal NPs and SWCNTs. However, traditional metal complexes have small molecular sizes, and their noncovalent interactions with SWCNTs are limited to provide excellent sensing and catalytic capability with restricted efficiency and durability. Here, we selected poly(9,9-di-n-dodecylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl-alt-2,2′-bipyridine-5,5′) (PFBPy) to increase the noncovalent interactions between silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and SWCNTs. A silver triflate (Ag–OTf) solution was added into a PFBPy-wrapped SWCNT solution to form Ag–PFBPy complexes on the nanotube surface, after which Ag(+) was photoreduced to AgNPs to form a Ag–PFBPy/SWCNT composite in the solution. In various feeding molar ratios of Ag–OTf over the BPy unit (0.4–50), the size of the formed AgNPs may be well-controlled at sub-nm levels to provide them with an energy level comparable to that of the SWCNTs. Additionally, the 2,2′-bipyridine (BPy) unit of the polymer provided a coordinating interaction with Ag(+) and the formed AgNPs as well. The 5,5′-linage of BPy with the fluorene unit in PFBPy ensured a straight main chain structure to retain strong π–π interactions with nanotubes before and after Ag(+) chelation. All of these factors confirmed a tight contact between the formed AgNPs and SWCNTs, promoting the charge transfer between them and enhancing the sensing capabilities with a 5-fold increase in humidity sensing sensitivity.