pH sensors, with high sensitivity,
durability, and low cost, are
considered to be essential tools in several applications such as laboratory
experiments, water quality, agriculture, and healthcare. Because of
their unique properties, carbon allotropes have attracted a lot of
attention during the last decade to be utilized in several applications,
in which pH sensing is one of them. In this work, a hybrid film of
graphene nanoplatelets (GPs) and gold nanoparticles (GNPs), where
the GNPs are embedded in the GP layer, was used as an active layer
in an electronic pH senor based on a capacitive metal oxide semiconductor.
Capacitance–voltage measurements have shown a change in the
flatband voltage with changing the applied pH. The sensitivity of
the GP–Au nanoparticle hybrid (GAH) film has been enhanced
by a factor of 26.7% compared to the GP film. We refer the higher
sensitivity to the increase in the surface potential of the GAH, which
became n-doped by the Au nanoparticles, resulting in a change of the
Fermi level of the GP layer. This sensor is easy to fabricate and
demonstrates sensitivity that is higher than previously reported electronic
pH sensitivities using different configurations.
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