Cu2O/Ti3C2Txnanocomposites for detection of triethylamine gas at room temperature.

ABSTRACT

Triethylamine gas is one of the harmful volatile organic compounds for human health and the ecological environment. Therefore, in order to prevent the detrimental effects of triethylamine gas, it has greatly requirement to be accurately detected. Unfortunately, Cu2O has a low triethylamine gas response and slow recovery. Because of this, we prepared Cu2O/Ti3C2Txnanocomposites by a facile ultrasonication technique. Cu2O is uniformly dispersed on the surface and interlayers of multilayer Ti3C2Txto form a stable hybrid heterostructure. The optimized Cu2O/Ti3C2Txnanocomposite sensor's response to 10 ppm triethylamine at room temperature is 181.6% (∣Rg-Ra∣/Ra × 100%). It is 3.5 times higher than the original Cu2O nanospheres (52.1%). Moreover, due to the characteristics of high carrier migration rate and excellent conductivity of Ti3C2Tx, the response recovery rate (1062 s/74 s) of Cu2O/Ti3C2Txcomposites is greatly improved than pristine Cu2O (3169 s/293 s). In addition, Cu2O/Ti3C2Txnanocomposites sensor also shows excellent repeatability, outstanding selectivity, and long-term stability. Thus, the Cu2O/Ti3C2Txnanocomposites sensor has broad application prospects for detecting triethylamine gas at room temperature.