Wearable, Flexible Ethanol Gas Sensor Based on TiO₂ Nanoparticles-Grafted 2D-Titanium Carbide Nanosheets

Abstract

Herein, we demonstrate a novel approach for development of TiO2 grafted 2D-TiC nanosheets (TiO2@2D-TiC) based room temperature operable, flexible ethanol gas sensor. The homogeneous distribution, unique composition, and crystalline microstructure of TiO2 nanoparticles grafted 2D-TiC nanosheets have been found to enhance the surface reactivity and efficiency of its transducer–receptor functions. The electron–hole recombination at the TiO2/2D-TiC interfaces offered superior sensor performance with fast response and recovery times. Moreover, TiO2@2D-TiC nanosheets based flexible sensor exhibited high selectivity toward trace-level ethanol gas (10 ppb–60 ppm) with extremely low noise-to-signal ratio and excellent stability. The results suggest that the development of low-cost flexible sensors based on TiO2@2D-TiC nanosheets could be applied for potential applications, such as printed/wearable electronics, biomedical sector and environmental monitoring.