Fully Printed, Rapid-Response Sensors Based on Chemically Modified Graphene for Detecting NO₂ at Room Temperature

Abstract

Reduced graphene oxide (RGO) has proven to be effective in trace gas detection at room temperature ambient conditions. However, the slow response-recovery characteristic is a major hurdle for the RGO-based gas sensors. Herein, we report a gravure-printed chemoresistor-type NO2 sensor based on sulfonated RGO (S-RGO) decorated with Ag nanoparticles (Ag-S-RGO). Large amounts of silver nanoparticles with an average particle size of 10-20 nm were uniformly assembled on flat S-RGO surfaces. The printed Ag-S-RGO sensor possesses a high sensitivity and fast response-recovery characteristic over NO2 concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 50 ppm. Upon exposure to 50 ppm NO2 at room temperature, the Ag-S-RGO sensor shows a sensitivity of 74.6%, a response time of 12 s and a recovery time of 20 s. In addition, the Ag-S-RGO sensors exhibit satisfactory flexibility with an almost constant resistance after 1000 bending cycles. The printed and high-performance Ag-S-RGO sensors described here will be a good prospect in environmental monitoring of NO2.