Graphene Oxide as a Practical Solution to High Sensitivity Gas Sensing

Abstract

Graphene and its related materials have attracted much interest in sensing applications because of their optimized ratio between active surface and bulk volume. In particular, several forms of oxidized graphene have been studied to optimize the sensing efficiency, sometimes moving away from practical solutions to boost performance. In this paper, we propose a practical, high-sensitivity, and easy to fabricate gas sensor based on high quality graphene oxide (GO), and we give the rationale to the high performance of the device. The device is fabricated by drop-casting water-dispersed single-layer GO flakes on standard 30 μm spaced interdigitated Pt electrodes. The exceptional size of the GO flakes (27 μm mean size and ∼500 μm maximum size) allows single GO flake to bridge adjacent electrodes. A typical p-type response is observed by testing the device in both reducing and oxidizing environments. The specific response to NO 2 is studied by varying the operating temperature and the gas concentration. Sensing activity is demonstrated to be mainly mediated by the oxygen functional groups. A 20 ppb detection limit is measured. Besides illustrating a simple and efficient approach to gas sensing, this work is an example of the versatility of graphene oxide, accomplishing tasks that are complementary to graphene.

Two-Dimensional Materials for Sensing: Graphene and Beyond

“…Graphene oxide, single-or few layered-graphite oxide sheets obtained by chemical oxidation of graphite and subsequent exfoliation in water, are rich in oxygen-containing groups such as epoxies, hydroxyls, carboxyls, etc., on its basal planes and edges which makes it a versatile material for gas detection [58][59][60][61]. Prezioso and his co-workers [58] proposed a practical and highly sensitive gas sensor based on large and highly oxidized GO flakes prepared by modified Hummers' method.…”

“…Prezioso and his co-workers [58] proposed a practical and highly sensitive gas sensor based on large and highly oxidized GO flakes prepared by modified Hummers' method. The sensor device was fabricated by drop casting GO monolayers with an average size of ~30 µm (about 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of commercially available GO) on platinum interdigitated electrodes.…”

Individual Gas Molecules Detection Using Zinc Oxide–Graphene Hybrid Nanosensor: A DFT Study

“…Graphene's amazing properties have attracted considerable interest in the area of gas sensing since they enable the improvement of miniaturized sensors at low cost and power consumption [3][4][5]. Consequently, graphene has been extensively studied theoretically [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] and experimentally [15][16][17][18][19][20]. On the downside, because of the weak interactions between π electrons of graphene's surface and the gas molecules, pristine graphene has shown limitations for the recognition of individual gas particles [9,10], exhibiting low sensitivity to common…”

Photoreduction of graphene oxide enhanced by sacrificial agents

“…Combining with the characteristics of high surface area and natural abundance, graphene is a promising material for use in sensor [1,2], supercapacitor [3][4][5], solar cell [6][7][8], and photocatalyst [9][10][11], etc. Therefore, many research efforts have been devoted to the synthesis of graphene [12][13][14][15][16].…”