Highly Sensitive CO Gas Sensor from Defective Graphene: Role of van der Waals Interactions

Abstract EN

Layered materials, such as graphene, have attracted increasing interestssince they can be extensively used in gas sensors, spintronic devices, andtransparent electrodes.

Although larger size of graphene sheets has beenfabricated, in reality, the existence of the defects in layered materials isalmost inevitable during the manufacturing process.

Here, we performed thestate-of-the-art density-functional theory calculations to study theinteractions between CO molecule and the pristine and defective graphenelayers, with the aim of designing a CO gas sensor with highersensitivity.

The van der Waalsinteractions predominate the binding between the CO gas and the sensor, and also significantly enhance the stability of the system.

Thedefective graphene strongly interacts with CO, and thus enhances the sensitivityof the graphene and further tunes the electronic and magnetic properties ofthe entire system.

Our computed results clearly demonstrate that thedefective graphene could be a good sensor for gas molecules.