Sensors (Jun 2023)

ZnO-Loaded Graphene for NO<sub>2</sub> Gas Sensing

  • Mohamed Ayoub Alouani,
  • Juan Casanova-Cháfer,
  • Frank Güell,
  • Elisa Peña-Martín,
  • Sara Ruiz-Martínez-Alcocer,
  • Santiago de Bernardi-Martín,
  • Alejandra García-Gómez,
  • Xavier Vilanova,
  • Eduard Llobet

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/s23136055
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 23, no. 13
p. 6055

Abstract

Read online

This paper investigates the effect of decorating graphene with zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs) for the detection of NO2. In this regard, two graphene sensors with different ZnO loadings of 5 wt.% and 20 wt.% were prepared, and their responses towards NO2 at room temperature and different conditions were compared. The experimental results demonstrate that the graphene loaded with 5 wt.% ZnO NPs (G95/5) shows better performance at detecting low concentrations of the target gas than the one loaded with 20 wt.% ZnO NPs (G80/20). Moreover, measurements under dry and humid conditions of the G95/5 sensor revealed that the material is very sensitive to ambient moisture, showing an almost eight-fold increase in NO2 sensitivity when the background changes from dry to 70% relative humidity. Regarding sensor selectivity, it presents a significant selectivity towards NO2 compared to other gas compounds.

Keywords