Frontiers of graphene and 2D material-based gas sensors for environmental monitoring

Buckley, David and Black, Nicola and Castanon, Eli and Melios, Christos and Hardman, Melanie and Kazakova, Olga (2020) Frontiers of graphene and 2D material-based gas sensors for environmental monitoring. 2D Materials, 7 (3): 032002. ISSN 2053-1583

Abstract

The World Health Organization reported that 4.2 million deaths every year were a direct result of exposure to ambient air pollution (NO2, SO2, NH3, CO2, CO, CH4). There is a well-demonstrated global need for high sensitivity, low cost and low energy consumption miniaturised gas sensors to be deployed in a dense network and to be used in an attempt to pinpoint and avoid high pollution hot spots. The high sensitivity of graphene to the local environment has shown to be highly advantageous in sensing applications, where ultralow concentrations of adsorbed molecules induce a significant response on the electronic properties of graphene. This is commonly attributed to the π electrons of graphene, being directly exposed to the surrounding environment. The unique electronic structure makes graphene the ‘ultimate’ sensing material for applications in environmental monitoring and air quality. In this review, we present the frontiers of graphene-based sensors considering both electrical and optical methods of detection and discuss the topical progress in an attempt to establish whether graphene can be considered as the ideal sensing material. We pay special attention to the optimization of the sensor performance, using various graphene hybrids and doping mechanisms. Furthermore, we present the recent developments in other 2D material-based sensors that have followed in the wake of graphene. We discuss the benchmarked parameters of graphene sensors, such as sensitivity, selectivity, response/recovery time and detection limit, and compare them with other 2D materials as well as existing state-of-the-art sensors currently being used in the field. We also perform a brief market analyses for the environmental sensing industry as well as provide a Strengths—Weaknesses—Opportunities—Threats analysis of graphene technology for environmental sensing.