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High Sensitivity Gas Detection Using a Macroscopic Three-Dimensional Graphene Foam Network

2011; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 1; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/srep00166

2045-2322

Fazel Yavari, Zongping Chen, Abhay V. Thomas, Wencai Ren, Hui‐Ming Cheng, Nikhil Koratkar,

Nanopore and Nanochannel Transport Studies

Nanostructures are known to be exquisitely sensitive to the chemical environment and offer ultra-high sensitivity for gas-sensing. However, the fabrication and operation of devices that use individual nanostructures for sensing is complex, expensive and suffers from poor reliability due to contamination and large variability from sample-to-sample. By contrast, conventional solid-state and conducting-polymer sensors offer excellent reliability but suffer from reduced sensitivity at room-temperature. Here we report a macro graphene foam-like three-dimensional network which combines the best of both worlds. The walls of the foam are comprised of few-layer graphene sheets resulting in high sensitivity; we demonstrate parts-per-million level detection of NH(3) and NO(2) in air at room-temperature. Further, the foam is a mechanically robust and flexible macro-scale network that is easy to contact (without Lithography) and can rival the durability and affordability of traditional sensors. Moreover, Joule-heating expels chemisorbed molecules from the foam's surface leading to fully-reversible and low-power operation.