Highly sensitive Triethylamine sensors Enabled by Co3O4/ZnO p-n heterojunctions

Abstract

Triethylamine (TEA) is a typically volatile organic compound that poses significant environmental and health risks, due to its high toxicity and volatility. Currently, the exploration of TEA sensors based on semiconductor ZnO is still suffered by their intrinsically low sensitivity, slow response/recovery times, and poor selectivity. Herein, we develop the highly-sensitive TEA sensors based on rationally-designed Co₃O₄/ZnO p-n heterojunctions, in which the clustered Co₃O₄ are incorporated into porous ZnO nanosheets. As a result, at the given operating temperature of 260 °C, the as-constructed sensors exhibit an overall enhanced performance with an excellent response of 140.5 to 100 ppm TEA, swift response/recovery times of 6/60 s and high selectivity, representing their promise toward practical applications in advanced TEA sensors.