Metal loaded nano-carbon gas sensor array for pollutant detection

Syrine Behi; Juan Casanova-Chafer; Ernesto González; Nadra Bohli; Eduard Llobet; Adnane Abdelghani

doi:10.1088/1361-6528/ac4e43

Metal loaded nano-carbon gas sensor array for pollutant detection

Nanotechnology. 2022 Feb 15;33(19). doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac4e43.

Authors

Syrine Behi¹, Juan Casanova-Chafer², Ernesto González², Nadra Bohli¹, Eduard Llobet², Adnane Abdelghani¹

Affiliations

¹ Carthage University, National Institute of Applied Science and Technology, Research Unit of Nanobiotechnology and Valorisation of Medicinal Phytoressources UR17ES22, Bp 676, 1080 Charguia CEDEX, Tunisia.
² Department of Electronics Engineering, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, MINOS, E-43007 Tarragona, Spain.

PMID: 35073524
DOI: 10.1088/1361-6528/ac4e43

Abstract

Many research works report a sensitive detection of a wide variety of gas species. However, their in-lab detection is usually performed by using single gases and, therefore, selectivity often remains an unsolved issue. This paper reports a four-sensor array employing different nano-carbon sensitive layers (bare graphene, SnO₂@Graphene, WO₃@Graphene, and Au@CNTs). The different gas-sensitive films were characterised via several techniques such as FESEM, TEM, and Raman. First, an extensive study was performed to detect isolated NO₂, CO₂, and NH₃molecules, unravelling the sensing mechanism at the operating temperatures applied. Besides, the effect of the ambient moisture was also evaluated. Afterwards, a model for target gas identification and concentration prediction was developed. Indeed, the sensor array was used in mixtures of NO₂and CO₂for studying the cross-sensitivity and developing a calibration model. As a result, the NO₂detection with different background levels of CO₂was achieved with anR²of 0.987 and an RMSE of about 22 ppb.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes; gas sensing; graphene; metal nanoparticle; sensor array.