Sulfonated graphene anchored with tin oxide nanoparticles for detection of nitrogen dioxide at room temperature with enhanced sensing performances

The development of graphene-based room temperature gas sensors has drawn massive attention due to their unique advantage of gas sensing at room temperature. In this paper, in pursuit of developing high-performance graphene-based gas sensors, a NO2 gas sensor has been successfully fabricated using sulfonated reduced graphene oxide (S-rGO) anchoring with SnO2 nanoparticles as sensing materials. The SnO2 nanoparticles modified S-rGO (SnO2/S-rGO) hybrids were prepared by deposition of SnO2 nanoparticles on the surface of S-rGO through hydrothermal synthesis method. The combined characterizations of X-ray diffraction, UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, as well as N2 sorption isotherm indicate the successful preparation of SnO2/S-rGO hybrids with porous structure. Most importantly, SnO2/S-rGO hybrids exhibit good sensing performances for detection of NO2 at room temperature, such as high response, fast response and recovery rate, and good selectivity. The sensor based on SnO2/S-rGO hybrids exhibits better sensing performances than the previously reported rGO-based gas sensors. Furthermore, the excellent sensing performances of sensor based on SnO2/S-rGO also render it suitable for development of high performance gas sensors operated at room temperature.