Multifunctional graphene sensors for magnetic and hydrogen detection.

ABSTRACT

Multifunctional graphene magnetic/hydrogen sensors are constructed for the first time through a simple microfabrication process. The as-fabricated graphene sensor may act as excellent Hall magnetic detector, demonstrating small linearity error within 2% and high magnetic resolution up to 7 mG/Hz(0.5). Meanwhile the same graphene sensor is also demonstrated as high-performance hydrogen sensor with high gas response, excellent linearity, and great repeatability and selectivity. In particular, the graphene sensor exhibits high hydrogen response up to 32.5% when exposed to 1000 ppm hydrogen, outperforming most graphene-based hydrogen sensors. In addition the hydrogen-sensing mechanism of Pd-decorated graphene is systematically explored through investigating its transfer characteristics during gas detection. Our work demonstrates that graphene is a terrific material for multifunctional sensing, which may in principle reduce the complexity of manufacturing process, lower the number of sensors required in the sensing systems, and potentially derive new and more powerful functions.