Selective Toluene Detection with Mo₂CT_x MXene at Room Temperature

Abstract

MXenes are a promising class of two-dimensional materials with several potential applications, including energy storage, catalysis, electromagnetic interference shielding, transparent electronics, and sensors. Here, we report a novel Mo2CTx MXene sensor for the successful detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The proposed sensor is a chemi-resistive device fabricated on a Si/SiO2 substrate using photolithography. The impact of various MXene process conditions on the performance of the sensor is evaluated. The VOCs toluene, benzene, ethanol, methanol, and acetone are studied at room temperature with varying concentrations. Under optimized conditions, the sensor demonstrates a detection limit of 220 ppb and a sensitivity of 0.0366 Ohm/ppm at a toluene concentration of 140 ppm. It exhibits an excellent selectivity toward toluene against the other VOCs. Ab initio simulations demonstrate selectivity toward toluene in line with the experimental results.

V2CTx and Ti3C2Tx MXenes Nanosheets for Gas Sensing

“…It is also noted that these devices show a linear behavior in most cases, but a nonlinear behavior appears only under some high biases due to the damped electron transmission and/or quantum confinement for many two-probe device systems. , …”

Experimental and Theoretical Advances in MXene-Based Gas Sensors

“…Guo et al studied the VOC sensing performance of Mo 2 CT x MXene sensors. 15 By selective etching of Ga layers from the Mo 2 Ga 2 C precursor using HF, multilayer Mo 2 CT x MXenes were produced. The concentration of the MXene (0.066 mg/mL) and the sonication time (8 h) were optimized in order to achieve a higher VOCs sensitivity.…”

“…Molybdenum carbide is another MXene structure for which the gas-sensing properties were evaluated. Guo et al studied the VOC sensing performance of Mo 2 CT x MXene sensors . By selective etching of Ga layers from the Mo 2 Ga 2 C precursor using HF, multilayer Mo 2 CT x MXenes were produced.…”

A comprehensive review of MXenes as catalyst supports for the oxygen reduction reaction in fuel cells

“…10 Due to their excellent electrical conductivity properties, MXenes were initially studied as energy storage materials for lithium-ion batteries [11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and supercapacitors. [18][19][20][21][22][23] In the past few years, MXenes have been explored and studied for use in many other applications, such as in electronics, [24][25][26][27] biomedicine, 28,29 sensors, [30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37] biosensors, [38][39][40][41][42][43][44] photothermal conversion, [45][46][47] water purification, [48][49][50][51] and even in the field of catalysis. [52][53][54][55][56][57]…”