Chemically Reduced Graphene Oxide for Ammonia Detection at Room Temperature

Chemically reduced graphene oxide (RGO) has recently attracted growing interest in the area of chemical sensors because of its high electrical conductivity and chemically active defect sites. This paper reports the synthesis of chemically reduced GO using NaBH₄ and its performance for ammonia detection at room temperature. The sensing layer was synthesized on a ceramic substrate containing platinum electrodes. The effect of the reduction time of graphene oxide (GO) was explored to optimize the response, recovery, and response time. The RGO film was characterized electrically and also with atomic force microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The sensor response was found to lie between 5.5% at 200 ppm (parts per million) and 23% at 2800 ppm of ammonia, and also resistance recovered quickly without any application of heat (for lower concentrations of ammonia). The sensor was exposed to different vapors and found to be selective toward ammonia. We believe such chemically reduced GO could potentially be used to manufacture a new generation of low-power portable ammonia sensors

Cerium-Doped Copper(II) Oxide Hollow Nanostructures as Efficient and Tunable Sensors for Volatile Organic Compounds

Tuning sensing capabilities of simple to complex oxides for achieving enhanced sensitivity and selectivity toward the detection of toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) is extremely important and remains a challenge. In the present work, we report the synthesis of pristine and Ce-doped CuO hollow nanostructures, which have much higher VOC sensing and response characteristics than their solid analogues. Undoped CuO hollow nanostructures exhibit high response for sensing of acetone as compared to commercial CuO nanoparticles. As a result of doping with cerium, the material starts showing selectivity. CuO hollow structures doped with 5 at. % of Ce return highest response toward methanol sensing, whereas increasing the Ce doping concentration to 10%, the material shows high response for bothacetone and methanol. The observed tunability in selectivity is directly linked to the varying concentration of the oxygen defects on the surface of the nanostructures. The work also shows that the use of hollow nanostructures could be the way forward for obtaining high-performance sensors even by using conventional and simple metal or semiconductor oxides