Synergically engineering defect and interlayer in SnS2 for enhanced room-temperature NO2 sensing

Quan Sun; Zhongmiao Gong; Yijian Zhang; Juanyuan Hao; Shengliang Zheng; Wen Lu; Yi Cui; Lizhao Liu; You Wang

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126816

Synergically engineering defect and interlayer in SnS₂ for enhanced room-temperature NO₂ sensing

J Hazard Mater. 2022 Jan 5:421:126816. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126816. Epub 2021 Aug 4.

Authors

Quan Sun¹, Zhongmiao Gong², Yijian Zhang¹, Juanyuan Hao³, Shengliang Zheng¹, Wen Lu¹, Yi Cui², Lizhao Liu⁴, You Wang⁵

Affiliations

¹ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China.
² Vacuum Interconnected Nanotech Workstation, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, PR China.
³ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China. Electronic address: jyhao@hit.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams (Ministry of Education), School of Physics, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, PR China. Electronic address: lizhao_liu@dlut.edu.cn.
⁵ School of Materials Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, PR China. Electronic address: y-wang@hit.edu.cn.

PMID: 34396968
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2021.126816

Abstract

Defect and interlayer engineering are considered as two promising strategies to alter the electronic structures of sensing materials for improved gas sensing properties. Herein, ethylene glycol intercalated Al-doped SnS₂ (EG-Al-SnS₂) featuring Al doping, sulfur (S) vacancies, and an expanded interlayer spacing was prepared and developed as an active NO₂ sensing material. Compared to the pristine SnS₂ with failure in detecting NO₂ at room temperature, the developed EG-Al-SnS₂ exhibited a better conductivity, which was beneficial for realizing the room-temperature NO₂ sensing. As a result, a high sensing response of 410% toward 2 ppm NO₂ was achieved at room temperature by using the 3% EG-Al-SnS₂ as the sensing material. Such outstanding sensing performance was attributed to the enhanced electronic interaction of NO₂ on the surface of SnS₂ induced by the synergistic effect of Al doping, S vacancies, and the expanded interlayer spacing, which is directly revealed by the in-suit measurement based on near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectronic spectroscopy (NAP-XPS). Furthermore, to identify the role of Al doping, S vacancies, and the expanded interlayer spacing in enhancing the NO₂ sensing properties, a series of comparative experiments and theoretical calculations were performed.

Keywords: Interlayer engineering; NO(2) gas sensing; Room temperature; SnS(2) sensor; Sulfur vacancies.