Sugar Molecules Detection via C2N Transistor-Based Sensor: First Principles Modeling

Abstract

Real-time detection of sugar molecules is critical for preventing and monitoring diabetes and for food quality evaluation. In this article, a field effect transistor (FET) based on two-dimensional nitrogenated holey graphene (C2N) was designed, developed, and tested to identify the sugar molecules including xylose, fructose, and glucose. Both density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green’s function (DFT + NEGF) were used to study the designed device. Several electronic characteristics were studied, including work function, density of states, electrical current, and transmission spectrum. The proposed sensor is made of a pair of gold electrodes joint through a channel of C2N and a gate was placed underneath the channel. The C2N monolayer distinctive characteristics are promising for glucose sensors to detect blood sugar and for sugar molecules sensors to evaluate food quality. The electronic transport characteristics of the sensor resulted in a unique signature for each of the sugar molecules. This proposed work suggests that the developed C2N transistor-based sensor could detect sugar molecules with high accuracy.

First-principles insights into the C6N7 monolayer as a highly efficient sensor and scavenger for the detection of selective volatile organic compounds

“…48 In addition, the excellent structural characteristics of C 6 N 7 monolayers are analogous to the other C x N y monolayers [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] such as C 2 N, g-C 3 N 4 , C 3 N 2 , and C 7 N 6 monolayers, which have been demonstrated to be promising candidates for gas sensors to monitor toxic gases and VOCs. [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48] However, to our best knowledge, the adsorption behaviors and gas-sensing properties of VOCs on the C 6 N 7 monolayer for sensor exploration are still unknown, which motivates us to investigate the sensing performance and mechanism of the C 6 N 7 -based VOCs sensors.…”

“…25 In addition, the increasing of the N-to-C ration in carbon nitrides generates novel electronic features and chemical/physical properties such as the tunable nanopore size and band gap and adjustable conductivity, which are promising for key applications. In this context, the CN-based monolayers have been extensively used in gas sensing and exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity towards toxic gas and VOCs such as C 2 N, 34–37 C 3 N, 38–41 CN, 42–44 C 3 N 2 , 45 C 7 N 6 , 46,47 C 6 N 7 , 48 g-C 3 N 4 , 49,50 and BC 6 N 51,52 monolayers, which further motivates people's enthusiasm to exploit new C x N y structures with high-performance gas sensing. In particular for the sensing of VOCs, Agrawal et al 39 has confirmed that the C 3 N monolayer has relatively high sensing performance for acetone and isopropanol detection, while Ma et al 40 has predicted that the Cu-doped C 3 N monolayer has promising potential for optical VOCs sensors.…”