The emission of harmful gases has seriously exceeded relative standards with the rapid development of modern industry, which has shown various negative impacts on human health and the natural environment. Recently, metal–organic frameworks (MOFs)-based materials have been widely used as chemiresistive gas sensing materials for the sensitive detection and monitoring of harmful gases such as NOx, H2S, and many volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In particular, the derivatives of MOFs, which are usually semiconducting metal oxides and oxide–carbon composites, hold great potential to prompt the surface reactions with analytes and thus output amplified resistance changing signals of the chemiresistors, due to their high specific surface areas, versatile structural tunability, diversified surface architectures, as well as their superior selectivity. In this review, we introduce the recent progress in applying sophisticated MOFs-derived materials for chemiresistive gas sensors, with specific emphasis placed on the synthesis and structural regulation of the MOF derivatives, and the promoted surface reaction mechanisms between MOF derivatives and gas analytes. Furthermore, the practical application of MOF derivatives for chemiresistive sensing of NO2, H2S, and typical VOCs (e.g., acetone and ethanol) has been discussed in detail.
Dynamic coassembly of block copolymers (BCPs) with Keggin-type polyoxometalates (POMs) is developed to synthesize heteroatom-doped tungsten oxide with controllable nanostructures, including hollow hemispheres, nanoparticles, and nanowires. The versatile coassembly in dual n-hexane/THF solvent solution enables the fomation of poly(ethylene oxide)-b-polystyrene (PEO-b-PS)/POMs (e.g., silicotungstic acid, H4SiW12O40) nanocomposites with different morphologies such as spherical vesicles, inverse spherical micelles, and inverse cylindrical micelles, which can be readily converted into diverse nanostructured metal oxides with high surface area and unique properties via in situ thermal-induced structural evolution. For example, uniform silicon-doped WO3 (Si-WO3) hollow hemispheres derived from coassembly of PEO-b-PS with H4SiW12O40 were utilized to fabricate gas sensing devices which exhibit superior gas sensing performance toward acetone, thanks to the selective gas-solid interface catalytic reaction that induces resistance changes of the devices due to the high specific surface areas, abundant oxygen vacancies, and the Si-doping induced metastable ε-phase of WO3. Furthermore, density functional theory (DFT) calculation reveals the mechanism about the high sensitivity and selectivity of the gas sensors. On the basis of the as-fabricated devices, an integrated gas sensor module was constructed, which is capable of real-time monitoring the environmental acetone concentration and displaying relevant sensing results on a smart phone via Bluetooth communication.
Toxic gas concentration monitoring is essential for avoiding chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Traditional complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-based toxic gas detection and alarm systems, due to the separated sensing and processing modules, face great challenges in both area and power consumption. Here, we present a compact artificial olfactory neuron, fully integrating the ZnO gas sensor for sensing and the NbO2 memristor for processing. The artificial neuron outputs spike signals only when gas concentration exceeds the threshold, endowed with event-driven features. It could encode analog gas concentration information into spike frequency in real time. By varying source voltages, the alarm concentration varies, making it adaptable to different alarm scenes. Experimental results show that the neuron's static and dynamic power consumption could be as low as $243.8\ \mu \mathrm{W}$ and $327.8\ \mu \mathrm{W}$, respectively, with a threshold concentration of 20 ppm. These results highlight the potential of the proposed neuron as a compact and energy-efficient solution for intelligent olfactory systems.
Flexible room-temperature gas sensors with good adaptability to various surfaces and low energy consumption hold a great promise for different applications such as environmental monitoring and human exhalation detection. However, the development of flexible sensing devices with stable and superior monitoring capability are still restricted by the insufficiently selectivity or sensitivity at low temperatures. In this study, a simultaneous etching and oxidation polymerization strategy is developed toward the synthesis of porous polypyrrole (PPy)/Ti3C2Tx MXene nanocomposites. In the nanocomposites, PPy nanosheets align vertically on the surface of Ti3C2Tx, forming numerous open and porous channels. As a result, the PPy/Ti3C2Tx-based flexible sensor shows highly exposed active sites and superior ammonia sensing performances at room temperature with good selectivity, high sensitivity, fast response rate and a low detection limit of 375 ppb. The sensor can exhibit stable and reliable sensitivity under different bending angles and even after 100 bending cycles. Moreover, the PPy/Ti3C2Tx nanocomposites can be integrated into a portable flexible wireless sensor for remote and real-time ammonia monitoring, exhibiting great potentials in various applications
The application of oxygen sensors based on Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy (TDLAS) in the industrial field has received extensive attention. However, most of the existing studies construct detection systems using discrete devices, making it difficult to apply them in the industrial field. In this work, through the optimization of the sensor circuit, the size of the core components of the sensor is reduced to 7.8 × 7.8 × 11.8 cm3, integrating the laser, photodetector, and system control circuit. A novel integrated optical path design is proposed for the optical mechanical structure, which enhances the structural integration and long-term optical path stability while reducing the system assembly complexity. The interlocking design of the laser-driven digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and photocurrent acquisition analog-to-digital converter (ADC) reduces the requirements of the harmonic signal extraction for the system hardware. By adopting a high-precision ADC and a high-resolution pulse-width modulation (PWM), the peak-to-peak value of the laser temperature control noise is reduced to 2 m°C, thereby reducing the detection noise of the sensor. This oxygen detection system has a minimum response time of 0.1 s. Under the condition of a 0.5 m detection optical path, the Allan variance shows that when the integration time is 5.6 s, the detection limit reaches 53.4 ppm, which is ahead of the detection accuracy of similar equipment under the very small system size.