Highly selective gas sensor arrays based on thermally reduced graphene oxide

Authors

Alexey Lipatov, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Alexey Varezhnikov, Department of Physics, Saratov State Technical University, Saratov, 410054, Russian Federation
Peter Wilson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Victor Sysoev, Department of Physics, Saratov State Technical University, Saratov, 410054, Russian Federation
Andrei Kolmakov, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow
Alexander Sinitskii, University of Nebraska – LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

2014

Citation

Nanoscale, 2013, 5, 5426

Comments

Copyright The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013

Abstract

The electrical properties of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) have been previously shown to be very sensitive to surface adsorbates, thus making rGO a very promising platform for highly sensitive gas sensors. However, poor selectivity of rGO-based gas sensors remains a major problem for their practical use. In this paper, we address the selectivity problem by employing an array of rGO-based integrated sensors instead of focusing on the performance of a single sensing element. Each rGO-based device in such an array has a unique sensor response due to the irregular structure of rGO films at different levels of organization, ranging from nanoscale to macroscale. The resulting rGO-based gas sensing system could reliably recognize analytes of nearly the same chemical nature. In our experiments rGO-based sensor arrays demonstrated a high selectivity that was sufficient to discriminate between different alcohols, such as methanol, ethanol and isopropanol, at a 100% success rate. We also discuss a possible sensing mechanism that provides the basis for analyte differentiation.