Electrical properties and chemiresistive response to 2,4,6 trinitrotoluene vapours of large area arrays of Ge nanowires

Paola Frigeri; Enos Gombia; Matteo Bosi; Giovanna Trevisi; Luca Seravalli; Claudio Ferrari

doi:10.1186/s11671-023-03780-1

Electrical properties and chemiresistive response to 2,4,6 trinitrotoluene vapours of large area arrays of Ge nanowires

Discov Nano. 2023 Feb 7;18(1):5. doi: 10.1186/s11671-023-03780-1.

Authors

Paola Frigeri¹, Enos Gombia², Matteo Bosi², Giovanna Trevisi², Luca Seravalli², Claudio Ferrari²

Affiliations

¹ IMEM-CNR Institute, Parco Area delle Scienze 37/A, 43124, Parma, Italy. paola.frigeri@imem.cnr.it.
² IMEM-CNR Institute, Parco Area delle Scienze 37/A, 43124, Parma, Italy.

Abstract

We study the electrical and morphological properties of random arrays of Ge nanowires (NW) deposited on sapphire substrates. NW-based devices were fabricated with the aim of developing chemiresistive-type sensors for the detection of explosive vapours. We present the results obtained on pristine and annealed NWs and, focusing on the different phenomenology observed, we discuss the critical role played by NW-NW junctions on the electrical conduction and sensing performances. A mechanism is proposed to explain the high efficiency of the annealed arrays of NWs in detecting 2,4,6 trinitrotoluene vapours. This study shows the promising potential of Ge NW-based sensors in the field of civil security.

Keywords: Chemiresistive sensor; Electrical properties; Explosive detection; Ge; NW–NW junctions; Nanowire.