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Nano Research 2018, 11(2): 791-803 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1688-y
Research Article | Issue | Published: 27 July 2017

Highly sensitive and rapidly responding room-temperature NO2 gas sensors based on WO3 nanorods/sulfonated graphene nanocomposites

Show Author's Information Tingting Wang,  Juanyuan Hao( ),  Shengliang Zheng,  Quan Sun,  Di Zhang,  You Wang( )
School of Materials Science and EngineeringHarbin Institute of TechnologyHarbin150001China
Keywords:
room temperature, metal oxide/sulfonated reduced graphene, NO2 gas sensing, rapidly responding, WO3 nanorods
Cite this article:
Wang T, Hao J, Zheng S, et al. Highly sensitive and rapidly responding room-temperature NO2 gas sensors based on WO3 nanorods/sulfonated graphene nanocomposites. Nano Research, 2018, 11(2): 791-803. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-017-1688-y
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Metal oxide/graphene nanocomposites are emerging as promising materials for developing room-temperature gas sensors. However, the unsatisfactory performances owing to the relatively low sensitivity, slow response, and recovery kinetics limit their applications. Herein, a highly sensitive and rapidly responding room-temperature NO2 gas sensor based on WO3 nanorods/sulfonated reduced graphene oxide (S-rGO) was prepared via a simple and cost-effective hydrothermal method. The optimal sensor response of the WO3/S-rGO sensor toward 20 ppm NO2 is 149% in 6 s, which is 4.7 times higher and 100 times faster than that of the corresponding WO3/rGO sensors. In addition, the sensor exhibits excellent reproducibility, selectivity, and extremely fast recovery kinetics. The mechanism of the WO3/S-rGO nanocomposite gas sensor is investigated in detail. In addition to the high transport capability of S-rGO as well as its excellent NO2 adsorption ability, the superior sensing performance of the S-rGO/WO3 sensor can be attributed to the favorable charge transfer occurring at the S-rGO/WO3 interfaces. We believe that the strategy of compositing a metal oxide with functionalized graphene provides a new insight for the future development of room-temperature gas sensors.


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About this article

Highly sensitive and rapidly responding room-temperature NO2 gas sensors based on WO3 nanorods/sulfonated graphene nanocomposites

Show Author's information Tingting Wang, Juanyuan Hao( ), Shengliang Zheng, Quan Sun, Di Zhang, You Wang( )
School of Materials Science and EngineeringHarbin Institute of TechnologyHarbin150001China

Abstract

Metal oxide/graphene nanocomposites are emerging as promising materials for developing room-temperature gas sensors. However, the unsatisfactory performances owing to the relatively low sensitivity, slow response, and recovery kinetics limit their applications. Herein, a highly sensitive and rapidly responding room-temperature NO2 gas sensor based on WO3 nanorods/sulfonated reduced graphene oxide (S-rGO) was prepared via a simple and cost-effective hydrothermal method. The optimal sensor response of the WO3/S-rGO sensor toward 20 ppm NO2 is 149% in 6 s, which is 4.7 times higher and 100 times faster than that of the corresponding WO3/rGO sensors. In addition, the sensor exhibits excellent reproducibility, selectivity, and extremely fast recovery kinetics. The mechanism of the WO3/S-rGO nanocomposite gas sensor is investigated in detail. In addition to the high transport capability of S-rGO as well as its excellent NO2 adsorption ability, the superior sensing performance of the S-rGO/WO3 sensor can be attributed to the favorable charge transfer occurring at the S-rGO/WO3 interfaces. We believe that the strategy of compositing a metal oxide with functionalized graphene provides a new insight for the future development of room-temperature gas sensors.

Keywords: room temperature, metal oxide/sulfonated reduced graphene, NO2 gas sensing, rapidly responding, WO3 nanorods

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Publication history
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Acknowledgements

Publication history

Received: 06 April 2017
Revised: 14 May 2017
Accepted: 17 May 2017
Published: 27 July 2017
Issue date: February 2018

Copyright

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

This work is funded by Key Laboratory of Micro-systems and Micro-structures Manufacturing of Ministry of Education, Harbin Institute of Technology (No. 2017KM007), the open Project of State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology (No. HCK201704), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 21101043).

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