Quantitative measurement of the nitrogen
oxide mixture (NO
x
, usually of NO and
NO2) usually
relies on sophisticated, space-consuming, and expensive spectroscopy
techniques such as gas chromatography (GC), Fourier-transform infrared
spectroscopy (FTIR), and chemi-luminescence detection (CLD). The direct
and portable measurement solutions are lacking in this regard. In
this work, by utilizing the bimodular sensing strategy, we successfully
demonstrated the differential measurement of NO
x
with errors smaller than 8.3%, by correlating the sensor
electrical and electrochemical responses. The effective detection
is successfully displayed in the low-concentration ranges of 1–10
ppm for NO and 100 ppb–1 ppm for NO2, where weak
competitive gas co-adsorption mitigated the cross-sensitivities compared
to the higher-concentration range. Based on the electron occupation
with negligible competitive adsorption, the accurate theoretic prediction
of the mixture responses versus component concentration relieves the
reliance on repeated calibration and empirical functions. With the
miniaturized size and simplified electrical feedthrough, the single
bimodular nanorod sensor provides a promising solution for direct
and portable NO
x
analysis at low concentrations.