Polyethylene glycol embedded reduced graphene oxide supramolecular assemblies for enhanced room-temperature gas sensors

Ahmad Umar; Rajesh Kumar; Pravin S More; Ahmed A Ibrahim; Hassan Algadi; Mohsen A Alhamami; Sotirios Baskoutas; Sheikh Akbar

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.116793

Polyethylene glycol embedded reduced graphene oxide supramolecular assemblies for enhanced room-temperature gas sensors

Environ Res. 2023 Nov 1;236(Pt 2):116793. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116793. Epub 2023 Jul 31.

Authors

Ahmad Umar¹, Rajesh Kumar², Pravin S More³, Ahmed A Ibrahim⁴, Hassan Algadi⁵, Mohsen A Alhamami⁴, Sotirios Baskoutas⁶, Sheikh Akbar⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Arts, Promising Centre for Sensors and Electronic Devices (PCSED), Najran University, Najran, 11001, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA. Electronic address: ahmadumar786@gmail.com.
² Department of Chemistry, Jagdish Chandra DAV College, Dasuya, Punjab, 144205, India.
³ Nano Material Application Laboratory, Department of Physics, The Institute of Science, Dr. Homi Bhabha State University, 15, Madam Cama Road, Fort, Mumbai, India.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Arts, Promising Centre for Sensors and Electronic Devices (PCSED), Najran University, Najran, 11001, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Najran University, Najran, 11001, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, 26500, Patras, Greece.
⁷ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA.

PMID: 37532212
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.116793

Abstract

Herein, we present the gas-dependent electrical properties of a reduced graphene oxide nanocomposite. The reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was synthesized by reducing GO with sodium borohydride (NaBH₄). As-synthesized rGO was dispersed in DI water containing 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 wt% polyethylene glycol (PEG) to prepare PEG-rGO supramolecular assemblies. The successful preparation of supramolecular assemblies was verified by their characterization using XRD, FESEM, EDS, TEM, FTIR, and Raman spectroscopy. At room temperature, the gas-dependent electrical properties of these supramolecular assemblies were investigated. The results showed that sensors composed of PEG-rGO supramolecular assemblies performed better against benzene and methanol at 3% and 4% PEG, respectively. However, high selectivity and a wide range of activation energies (∼1.64-1.91 eV) were observed for H₂ gas for 4% PEG-modified supramolecular assemblies. The PEG-rGO supramolecular assemblies may be an excellent candidate for constructing ultrahigh-performance gas sensors for a variety of applications due to their high sensitivity and selectivity.

Keywords: Benzene; Gas sensor; High selectivity; Hydrogen; Methanol; PEG-rGO supramolecular assemblies.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Graphite* / chemistry
Polyethylene Glycols* / chemistry
Temperature

Substances

graphene oxide
Polyethylene Glycols
Graphite