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Multifunctional two-dimensional glassy graphene devices for vis-NIR photodetection and volatile organic compound sensing

多功能二维玻璃态石墨烯器件用于可见光-近红外光探测与挥发性液体传感

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Abstract

Multifunctional devices are of great interest for integration and miniaturization on the same platform, but simple addition of functionalities would lead to excessively large devices. Here, the photodetection and chemical sensing device is developed based on two-dimensional (2D) glassy-graphene that meets similar property requirements for the two functionalities. An appropriate bandgap arising from the distorted lattice structure enables glassy graphene to exhibit comparable or even improved photodetection and chemical sensing capability, compared with pristine graphene. Due to strong interactions between glassy graphene and the ambient atmosphere, the devices are less sensitive to photoinduced desorption than the ones based on graphene. Consequently, the few-layer glassy graphene device delivers positive photoresponse, with a responsivity of 0.22 A W−1 and specific detectivity reaching ~1010 Jones under 405 nm illumination. Moreover, the intrinsic defects and strain in glassy graphene can enhance the adsorption of analytes, leading to high chemical sensing performance. Specifically, the extracted signal-to-noise-ratio of the glassy graphene device for detecting acetone is 48, representing more than 50% improvement over the device based on graphene. Additionally, bias-voltage- and thickness-dependent volatile organic compound (VOC) sensing features are identified, indicating the few-layer glassy graphene is more sensitive. This study successfully demonstrates the potential of glassy graphene for integrated photodetection and chemical sensing, providing a promising solution for multifunctional applications further beyond.

摘要

本文设计了基于二维玻璃态石墨烯的多功能器件. 与本征石墨烯相比, 扭曲的晶格结构打开了玻璃态石墨烯的带隙, 表现出与石墨烯类似甚至更优异的光电探测与化学传感性能. 由于玻璃态石墨烯与空气中的小分子间较强的相互作用, 该器件受到光致脱附的影响更小, 呈现出正的光响应. 在405 nm的激光照射下, 器件的响应率为0.22 A W−1, 探测率为~1010 Jones. 此外, 玻璃态石墨烯中的固有缺陷和应变可增强分析物的吸附, 获得良好的化学传感性能. 玻璃态石墨烯器件探测丙酮的信噪比为48, 比石墨烯器件提 高了50%以上. 此外, 对偏压和厚度有关的挥发性有机化合物(VOC)感测功能的分析表明, 少层玻璃态石墨烯更为敏感. 这项研究表明玻璃态石墨烯在集成光电探测和化学传感多功能器件方面具有巨大应用前景.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61974014) and the EPSRC Future Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing Hub (EP/P006973/1). Dr. Hao Xu and Jian Guo thank the China Scholarship Council (CSC). We thank Sanjayan Sathasivam and Siyu Xiong for their help in the XPS, UPS and contact angle measurements, respectively.

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Author contributions Li X, Xu H and Wu J conceived the idea and designed the experiments; Dai X and Zou G synthesized the glassy graphene thin films; Li X and Xu H performed the device fabrication; Li X, Shen K, Guo J, Parkin IP and Guo Z performed the material characterizations; Li X, Xu H and Li C performed the device measurements; Li X, Xu H, Choy KL, Liu H and Wu J analyzed the data; Li X and Xu H wrote the manuscript. All authors commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hao Xu  (徐浩), Guifu Zou  (邹贵付) or Kwang-Leong Choy.

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Conflict of interest The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Hao Xu is a research Professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC). He received his Master’s degree in microelectronics from Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his PhD degree in photonics and nanotechnology from the University College London (UCL). His current research is focused on low-dimensional semiconductors and their applications for nanoelectronics and optoelectronics.

Guifu Zou received his PhD degree in chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China in 2006. Following a postdoctoral position in Umea University (Sweden), he was appointed as a Director’s Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2007. He joined Soochow University in 2011. His research focuses on inorganic thin films and emerging materials including 2D materials, perovskites, superconductors, and their potential applications in photovoltaics.

Kwang-Leong Choy is a Professor at UCL and Director of UCL Institute for Materials Discovery which was founded by her in 2014. She obtained her PhD in materials science from the University of Oxford. She also held academic positions at the Imperial College London and the University of Nottingham. The current focus of Choy’s group is nanomaterials, thin films and coatings for structural, functional and biomedical applications.

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Multifunctional two-dimensional glassy graphene devices for vis-NIR photodetection and volatile organic compound sensing

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Li, X., Dai, X., Xu, H. et al. Multifunctional two-dimensional glassy graphene devices for vis-NIR photodetection and volatile organic compound sensing. Sci. China Mater. 64, 1964–1976 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-020-1601-9

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