Functionalized organic–inorganic hybrid composites used as colorimetric chemosensors for hydrogen sulfide detection

Abstract Detection of trace‐level hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) gas is of great importance both in industrial production and disease diagnosis. In this article, two simple but smart colorimetric chemosensors for H 2 S detection were designed based upon the principle of colorimetric reaction. Ag NPs, as the main detection agent was loaded onto the primary carrier, silica sulfonic acid. Thus, a silver‐modified silica sulfonic acid (Ag‐SSA) was prepared successfully. Then the Ag‐SSA was integrated with two kinds of secondary substrate materials. One is the cotton‐woven textile and the other one is polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) nanofibrous membrane. Finally, two functionalized organic–inorganic hybrid composite systems for H 2 S detection were formed. Both of them were able to exhibit a rapid visual color change in response to H 2 S. Ag‐SSA/cotton textile was tested in the aqueous state and the limit of detection (LOD) of H 2 S solution was around 10 −6 mol/L. For the Ag‐SSA/PVA nanofibers membrane detected in the atmospheric condition, the LOD of H 2 S gas reached 6.5 ppm. This research has been successfully demonstrated for the application in sensitive and selective detection of hydrogen sulfide in aqueous solution and gaseous state.