Sensitive
gas sensors are becoming increasingly important in toxic
gas detection and environmental monitoring. The applications of conventional
gas sensors are limited due to their low sensitivity or high operating
temperature. MXenes with high conductivity are conducive to the rapid
transmission of electrons and are suitable as highly sensitive NH3 gas sensors. Considering the limited research on the experimental
details and sensing mechanism of MXene-based NH3 gas sensors,
our research focuses on precisely controlling the atomic structure
of MXenes to improve the performance of NH3 gas sensors.
The atomic structures of a typical monolayer Ti3C2O2 MXene and its Ti-deficient counterpart as the NH3 gas sensor are systematically studied through first-principles
calculations and the nonequilibrium Green’s function method.
The Ti-deficient Ti3C2O2 MXene has
a relatively stronger physical interaction with NH3 and
is comparatively more suitable as a highly sensitive NH3 gas sensor. Atomic-level device simulations show that the current
has a greater change when NH3 is adsorbed on the surface
of Ti-deficient Ti3C2O2. These detailed
calculations provide substantial theoretical support and a useful
design scheme to improve the sensitivity of MXene-based gas sensors
by deliberately introducing Ti vacancies in the MXene.
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