Detection of Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP) Precursors with an Array of Sensors Based on MoS₂/RGO Composites

Sensors (Basel). 2019 Mar 13;19(6):1281. doi: 10.3390/s19061281.

Abstract

Triacetone triperoxide (TATP) is a self-made explosive synthesized from the commonly used chemical acetone (C₃H₆O) and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). As C₃H₆O and H₂O₂ are the precursors of TATP, their detection is very important due to the high risk of the presence of TATP. In order to detect the precursors of TATP effectively, hierarchical molybdenum disulfide/reduced graphene oxide (MoS₂/RGO) composites were synthesized by a hydrothermal method, using two-dimensional reduced graphene oxide (RGO) as template. The effects of the ratio of RGO to raw materials for the synthesis of MoS₂ on the morphology, structure, and gas sensing properties of the MoS₂/RGO composites were studied. It was found that after optimization, the response to 50 ppm of H₂O₂ vapor was increased from 29.0% to 373.1%, achieving an increase of about 12 times. Meanwhile, all three sensors based on MoS₂/RGO composites exhibited excellent anti-interference performance to ozone with strong oxidation. Furthermore, three sensors based on MoS₂/RGO composites were fabricated into a simple sensor array, realizing discriminative detection of three target analytes in 14.5 s at room temperature. This work shows that the synergistic effect between two-dimensional RGO and MoS₂ provides new possibilities for the development of high performance sensors.

Keywords: (TATP) precursors; MoS2/RGO composites; sensor arrays; synergistic effect.