Phosphorene: A Promising Candidate for Highly Sensitive and Selective SF₆ Decomposition Gas Sensors

Abstract

Phosphorene is a promising candidate for gas sensing materials. This letter describes our study of the adsorption of SF <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sub> and SF <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sub> decomposition gases (SO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> and H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> S) on phosphorene. We used first principles calculations to explore phosphorene's potential applications as gas sensor to diagnose the state of online gas insulated switchgear (GIS). The calculation results showed that only the adsorption of SO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> induced a moderate adsorption energy and apparent charge transfer. We further investigated the current-voltage (I-V) relationships before and after gas absorption through the non-equilibrium Green's function method. It was found that only SO <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> induced a dramatic change in the I-V relationships. Therefore, phosphorene appears to be a promising candidate for highly sensitive and selective SF <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">6</sub> decomposition gas sensors for online GIS diagnosis.