Liquid-Phase Co-Exfoliated Graphene/MoS2 Nanocomposite for Methanol Gas Sensing

Abstract

We developed an efficient method to co-exfoliate graphite and MoS2 to fabricate graphene/MoS2 nanocomposite. The size, morphology, and crystal structure of the graphene/MoS2 nanocomposite were carefully examined. The as-prepared graphene/MoS2 nanocomposite was fabricated into thin film sensor by a facile drop casting method and tested with methanol gas in various concentrations. The sensitivity, response time, and repeatability of the graphene/MoS2 nanocomposite sensor towards methanol gas were systematically investigated. A pure MoS2- based thin film sensor was also prepared and compared with the nanocomposite sensor to better understand the synergetic effect in the sensing performance. Our research demonstrated that compositing MoS2 with graphene could overcome the shortcoming of MoS2 as a sensor material and bring in a promising gas-sensing performance with a quicker response/recovery time and an enhanced sensitivity. Moreover, this composited material with a distinct structure and an excellent electronic property is expected to have potential application in various fields, such as optoelectronic.