Highly selective gas sensor arrays based on thermally reduced graphene oxide

Nanoscale. 2013 Jun 21;5(12):5426-34. doi: 10.1039/c3nr00747b.

Abstract

The electrical properties of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) have been previously shown to be very sensitive to surface adsorbates, thus making rGO a very promising platform for highly sensitive gas sensors. However, poor selectivity of rGO-based gas sensors remains a major problem for their practical use. In this paper, we address the selectivity problem by employing an array of rGO-based integrated sensors instead of focusing on the performance of a single sensing element. Each rGO-based device in such an array has a unique sensor response due to the irregular structure of rGO films at different levels of organization, ranging from nanoscale to macroscale. The resulting rGO-based gas sensing system could reliably recognize analytes of nearly the same chemical nature. In our experiments rGO-based sensor arrays demonstrated a high selectivity that was sufficient to discriminate between different alcohols, such as methanol, ethanol and isopropanol, at a 100% success rate. We also discuss a possible sensing mechanism that provides the basis for analyte differentiation.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • 2-Propanol / analysis
  • Electrochemical Techniques*
  • Electrodes
  • Ethanol / analysis
  • Gases / analysis*
  • Graphite / chemistry*
  • Methanol / analysis
  • Oxides / chemistry

Substances

  • Gases
  • Oxides
  • Ethanol
  • Graphite
  • 2-Propanol
  • Methanol