The effect of metal type and gamma irradiation doses on the VOC detection performance of new 1,3-bis(2-pyridylamino)isoindoline complexes

•1,3-bis(2-pyridylimino)isoindoline containing nickel and copper were synthesized.•Thin film of these compounds is obtaining using spin coating method.•The deposited films are exposed to six doses of gamma irradiation.•Volatile organic compound detection (VOC) capacities of thin films were studied.•VOC detection performance was found to be highly dependent on the metal. In this study, naphthoxy group substituted 1,3-bis(2-pyridylimino)isoindoline compounds containing nickel and copper metals were synthesized and characterized by NMR, FTIR, UV–vis, and mass spectroscopic methods. Thin film of these compounds is deposited on Plexiglas substrates decorated with Au interdigital electrode structure using spin coating method. The deposited films are then exposed to six doses of gamma irradiation between 1 kGy and 150 kGy using 60Co as gamma source. The morphological and volatile organic compound (VOC) sensing properties of as-deposited and gamma-irradiated thin films are investigated using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) technique and current-time (I–t) measurement set up, respectively. The results of VOC sensing performance have shown that in naphthoxy group substituted 1,3-bis(2-pyridylimino)isoindoline compounds containing nickel and copper metals strongly dependence on the central metal. Under the same conditions, the maximum sensitivity was observed against methanol vapor in the NiBPI-based sensor, while the maximum sensitivity was observed towards ammonia vapor in the CuBPI-based sensor. The results obtained from examining the effect of gamma radiation dose on the VOC sensing performance of the sensors showed that gamma radiation dose has non-negligible effect on the VOC sensing properties of these compounds. For example, the response of CuBPI-based sensor towards ammonia vapors treated by 15 kGy gamma radiation was 18 times higher than that of bare CuBPI based sensor, the results obtained was correlated with the surface roughness of the films. In this study, we have successfully synthesized and characterized naphthoxy group substituted 1,3-bis(2-pyridylimino)isoindoline (BPI) compounds containing nickel and copper metals. The effects of the metal type atom and gamma irradiation doses on VOC sensing performance of NiBPI and CuBPI thin film based sensors were also investigated. The result showed that VOC sensitivity and selectivity of these compound based sesors can be manupilated by changing the metal atom. The influence of the gamma ray irradiation dose on