A joint research team led by Prof. WU Zhongshuai and Prof. FENG Liang fom the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a two-dimensional hierarchical ordered dual-mesoporous polypyrrole/graphene (DM-PG) nanosheet as the bi-functional active material for a novel prototype planar integrated system of micro-supercapacitor (MSC) and NH
3 sensor. Their study was published in
Advanced Functional Material.
The MSC-gas sensor integrated system represents a more and more important core technique for body-attachable and portable gas pollutants (e.g., NH3, one of the most common gas in industry, agriculture and our daily life) detection.
So far, the most integrated systems are assembled with serial devices based on multiple mono-functional materials, which increases difficulty in the efficient construction of the integrated systems. Thus, developing dual-functional active materials with both high energy storage and sensitive sensing performance for planar MSC-gas sensor integrated system is highly desirable.
Scheme of two-dimensional dual-mesoporous polymer nanosheets for planar micro-supercapacitor-sensor integrated system. (Imaged by QIN Jieqiong)
Owing to effective coupling of conductive graphene and high-sensitive pseudocapacitive polypyrrole, well-defined dual-mesopores of ~7 and ~18 nm, hierarchical mesoporous network, and large surface area, the resultant DM-PG nanosheets exhibited extraordinary sensing response to NH3 as low as 200 ppb, exceptional selectivity towards NH3, and outstanding capacitance of 376 F g-1 for supercapacitors.
"The MSC-sensor integrated system shows rapid and stable response exposed to 10~40 ppm of NH3 only after charging for 100 s," said Prof. WU.
It also presented remarkable sensitivity of NH3 detection close to DM-PG based MSC-free sensor, impressive flexibility with ~82% of initial response value at 180°, and enhanced overall compatibility, thereby holding promise for ultrathin, miniaturized, body-attachable, and portable detection of NH3.
