Gas Sensors Based on Mechanically Exfoliated MoS<sub>2</sub> Nanosheets for Room-Temperature NO<sub>2</sub> Detection

oleh: Wenli Li, Yong Zhang, Xia Long, Juexian Cao, Xin Xin, Xiaoxiao Guan, Jinfeng Peng, Xuejun Zheng

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: MDPI AG 2019-05-01

Deskripsi

The unique properties of MoS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets make them a promising candidate for high-performance room temperature gas detection. Herein, few-layer MoS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets (FLMN) prepared via mechanical exfoliation are coated on a substrate with interdigital electrodes for room-temperature NO<sub>2</sub> detection. Interestingly, compared with other NO<sub>2</sub> gas sensors based on MoS<sub>2</sub>, FLMN gas sensors exhibit high responsivity for room-temperature NO<sub>2</sub> detection, and NO<sub>2</sub> is easily desorbed from the sensor surface with an ultrafast recovery behavior, with recovery times around 2 s. The high responsivity is related to the fact that the adsorbed NO<sub>2</sub> can affect the electron states within the entire material, which is attributed to the very small thickness of the MoS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets. First-principles calculations were carried out based on the density functional theory (DFT) to verify that the ultrafast recovery behavior arises from the weak van der Waals binding between NO<sub>2</sub> and the MoS<sub>2</sub> surface. Our work suggests that FLMN prepared via mechanical exfoliation have a great potential for fabricating high-performance NO<sub>2</sub> gas sensors.