UV light irradiation enhanced gas sensor selectivity of NO2 and SO2 using rGO functionalized with hollow SnO2 nanofibers

•The article investigates UV light excited gas sensing properties based on rGO functionalized with different contents of hollow SnO2 nanofibers.•The greatly enhanced selective detection to NO2 and SO2 is achieved, the response ratio of NO2/SO2 is up to 9.3 by using UV light illumination.•The modulat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors and actuators. B, Chemical Chemical, 2019-07, Vol.290, p.443-452
Main Authors: Li, Weiwei, Guo, Jiahui, Cai, Li, Qi, Wenzhi, Sun, Yilin, Xu, Jian-Long, Sun, Mengxing, Zhu, Hongwei, Xiang, Lan, Xie, Dan, Ren, Tianling
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Detection
Electric fields
Gas sensors
Gases
Graphene
Holes (electron deficiencies)
Illumination
Light
Light irradiation
Luminous intensity
Nanocomposites
Nanofibers
Nitrogen dioxide
Reduced graphene oxide
Selectivity
Sensors
Tin dioxide
Tin oxide nanofibers
Ultrasonic processing
Ultraviolet light
Ultraviolet radiation
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Summary:•The article investigates UV light excited gas sensing properties based on rGO functionalized with different contents of hollow SnO2 nanofibers.•The greatly enhanced selective detection to NO2 and SO2 is achieved, the response ratio of NO2/SO2 is up to 9.3 by using UV light illumination.•The modulation effect of UV light assistance on gas detection is demonstrated.•Sensing mechanism analysis of the UV light activated rGO/SnO2 sensors is studied. Herein, to enhance selective detection of NO2 and SO2 using a single device, an ultraviolet (UV) light activated gas sensor has been reported based on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) functionalized with hollow SnO2 nanofibers (NFs) at room temperature. The porous hollow SnO2 NFs are synthesized using electrospinning and calcination treatment, then different contents of SnO2 are introduced to rGO for preparation of rGO/SnO2 nanocomposites by facile magnetic stirring and ultrasonic treatment. The rGO/SnO2 samples reveal obvious sensing response, great reversibility and good humidity resistance to target gases at ppm level. Under different intensities of UV light illumination, gas sensing properties of rGO/SnO2 are studied to explore the photoexcited sensing behaviors. The greatly enhanced selective detection to NO2 (102%) and SO2 (11%) is achieved with a response ratio of 9.3 by using UV light illumination. The results show sensor response and selectivity can be improved using appropriate intensity of excitation light, demonstrating significant modulation effect of UV light assistance on gas detection. The mechanism may be attributed to light motivated electron-hole pairs due to built-in electric fields under UV light illumination, which can be captured by target gases and lead to UV controlled gas sensing performance.
ISSN:0925-4005
1873-3077
DOI:10.1016/j.snb.2019.03.133