Here we report the highly effective detection of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas by redox reactions based on single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) functionalized with 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) as a catalyst and we also discuss the important role of water vapor in the electrical conductivity of SWCNTs during the sensing of H2S molecules. To explore the H2S sensing mechanism, we investigate the adsorption properties of H2S on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and the effects of the TEMPO functionalization using first-principles density functional theory (DFT) and we summarize current changes of devices resulting from the redox reactions in the presence of H2S. The semiconducting-SWCNT (s-SWCNT) device functionalized with TEMPO shows a very high sensitivity of 420% at 60% humidity, which is 17 times higher than a bare s-SWCNT device under dry conditions. Our results offer promising prospects for personal safety and real-time monitoring of H2S gases with the highest sensitivity and low power consumption and potentially at a low cost.

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