Real-time and high-performance monitoring of trace carbon
dioxide
(CO2) has become a necessity due to its substantial impact
on the global climate, human health, indoor occupancy, and crop productivity.
Two-dimensional materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides
(TMDs) have gained significant interest in gas sensing applications
owing to their intrinsically high surface-to-volume ratio. However,
the research has been limited to prominent TMDs such as WS2 and MoS2. Specifically, the chemiresistive sensing performance
of titanium disulfide (TiS2) has rarely been investigated.
We present an electric-field-assisted TiS2 nanodisc assembly
for the fabrication of a low-cost, low-power CO2 gas sensor
based on charge transfer between physisorbed CO2 analyte
molecules and TiS2 nanodiscs operating at room temperature.
The physiochemical properties of the synthesized TiS2 nanodiscs
were investigated via scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electron
diffraction spectroscopy (EDS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM),
X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman spectroscopy. The fabricated sensor
demonstrated an ultra-high sensor response of 60%, a fast response
time of 37 s toward 500 ppm CO2 gas, and the lowest detection
limit of 5 ppm under ambient conditions. The low adsorption energies
and vdW interaction between CO2 molecules and TiS2 resulted in easy desorption, allowing the sensor to self-recover
without the need for external stimuli, which is hardly been witnessed
in other 2D material analogues. Furthermore, the sensor has excellent
reproducibility and stability for successive analyte exposures, as
well as excellent selectivity for CO2 over other interfering
gases. This reported sensor based on 2D TMDs is the first of its type
to integrate such a broad range of sensor characteristics (such as
high sensor response and sensitivity, rapid response and recovery
times, a high signal-to-noise ratio, and excellent selectivity at
room temperature) into a single, revolutionary device for CO2 detection.