MXene, as a group of prominent two-dimensional (2D) materials, has attracted the attention in the field of sensors due to its large specific surface area, good electronic conductivity and abundant functional groups. In addition to the widely reported titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx), other MXene nanomaterials are gradually developed in recent years. Herein, niobium carbide (Nb2CTx) MXene with ultrathin nanosheets is synthesized through the typical liquid-phase exfoliation (hydrofluoric acid) and special delamination (tetrapropylammonium hydroxide) method. The resistive-type humidity sensor prepared by simple dropping coating is tested at room temperature (25 °C). The results show that the resistance variation of the Nb2CTx humidity sensor is more than three orders of magnitude within the humidity range from 0 to 91.5 % relative humidity (RH) and the response (recovery) time of the sensor is only 1 s (8 s). Moreover, the Nb2CTx humidity sensor exhibits small humidity hysteresis (∼2.5 %RH) and good linearity. Ultrathin Nb2CTx nanosheets provide copious adsorption sites for water molecules, the ionization of physical adsorbed water molecules leads to a rapid decline in resistance. The ultrafast response of Nb2CTx sensor is expected to be applied in the field of industry, agriculture and human-respiration humidity monitoring.
Paper is known to have good flexible and hydrophilic characteristics, making it a potential candidate material to fabricate flexible humidity sensor. The key technology for fabricating paper-based (PB) humidity sensor is to prepare electrodes on the surface of paper. However, the preparation of electrodes on the flexible paper usually involves complex processes and expensive raw materials. In this work, inspired by the traditional writing art with carbon ink, a facile PB humidity sensor is fabricated by drawing the daily available carbon ink on paper as the electrodes. The results show that the PB humidity sensor exhibits an excellent humidity sensing response of more than 1000 as well good linearity (R2 = 0.9981) within the humidity range from 18.7% to 91.5% relative humidity (RH). Owing to the good flexibility and fast response rate (~7.5 nA/s, current change rate of the humidity sensor from18.7% to 91.5% RH), endowing the PB humidity sensor has multifunctional applications for breath rate, baby diaper wetting, and vertical space humidity distribution monitoring. Moreover, the PB humidity sensor can be directly disposed by a simple and cost-saving combustion method. This work provides a helpful guidance for the preparation of flexible, low-cost, eco-friendly and multifunctional humidity sensor, and expands the application of daily available carbon ink in the field of electrodes.
In this work, a flexible self-powered ammonia (NH3) sensing system based on a vertical contact-separate mode triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) has been proposed for room temperature detection of NH3 concentrations. By integrating NH3-sensing materials into the nanogenerator (TENG), the degree of ambient NH3 concentration can be actively detected at room temperature. The output voltage of the self-powered system has a proportional relationship with NH3 concentrations. Furthermore, the Ce-ZnO heterostructure nanoparticles thin film was prepared by hydrothermal synthesis method under 150°C and then form a sensitive film through spray method, which demonstrates a good sensing-response when exposed to NH3 molecules. For comparison, the ZnO nanoparticles was prepared through the same method. Moreover, the morphology and chemical properties of the fabricated sensor based on ZnO nanoparticles and Ce-ZnO heterostructure nanoparticles film were characterized by SEM, UV-visible spectroscopy and XRD, respectively. In addition, the prepared self-powered triboelectric NH3 sensor based on Ce-ZnO heterostructure nanoparticles composite thin film holds a gas-sensing response of 44.68% at 100 ppm NH3. The doping of Ce in the hydrothermal synthesis process of ZnO nanoparticles effectively enhanced the active sites of ZnO, leading to an increase of the NH3-sensing response compared to pure ZnO nanoparticles film, which is 4.4 times higher than that of pure ZnO. This research not only provides a simple method in self-powered NH3 sensing but also successfully realizes the integration of NH3-sensitive materials in the TENG to achieve integrated compatibility in NH3 detection.
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