Enhanced Response for Foodborne Pathogens Detection by Au Nanoparticles Decorated ZnO Nanosheets Gas Sensor.

Listeria monocytogenes is a hazardous foodborne pathogen that is able to cause acute meningitis, encephalitis, and sepsis to humans. The efficient detection of 3-hydroxy-2-butanone, which has been verified as a biomarker for the exhalation of Listeria monocytogenes, can feasibly evaluate whether the bacteria are contained in food. Herein, we developed an outstanding 3-hydroxy-2-butanone gas sensor based on the microelectromechanical systems using Au/ZnO NS as a sensing material. In this work, ZnO nanosheets were synthesized by a hydrothermal reaction, and Au nanoparticles (~5.5 nm) were prepared via an oleylamine reduction method. Then, an ultrasonic treatment was carried out to modified Au nanoparticles onto ZnO nanosheets. The XRD, BET, TEM, and XPS were used to characterize their morphology, microstructure, catalytic structure, specific surface area, and chemical composition. The response of the 1.0% Au/ZnO NS sensors vs. 25 ppm 3-hydroxy-2-butanone was up to 174.04 at 230 °C. Moreover, these sensors presented fast response/recovery time (6 s/7 s), great selectivity, and an outstanding limit of detection (lower than 0.5 ppm). This work is full of promise for developing a nondestructive, rapid and practical sensor, which would improve Listeria monocytogenes evaluation in foods.

The in-plane metal contacted 5.1 nm Janus WSSe Schottky barrier field-effect transistors.

Edge contact between two-dimensional materials and metal can achieve small contact resistance because of strong interaction. In this work, we investigated the electronic transport of in-plane (IP) heterojunctions based on Ti/WSSe and Sn/WSSe using first principle calculations. The results showed that the interface bonding and metallization are found on the IP Ti/WSSe and Sn/WSSe contact interface, indicating that the Ohmic contacts are formed between Ti, Sn and WSSe. Then, we constructed double-gate model to investigate the performance of the IP Ti and Sn contacted 5.1 nm WSSe Schottky barrier field-effect transistors (SBFETs). The calculated on-state current of the IP Ti contacted 5.1 nm WSSe SBFETs is 406.3 µA/µm. While, the on-state current of the Sn contacted 5.1 nm WSSe SBFETs reachs up to 1104.2 µA/µm, which is far beyond the requirements of the requirements of International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductor (ITRS) HP application targets. Our study will provide a guide for high performance transistors based on IP metal/WSSe configurations in the future.

The effect of different covalent bond connections and doping on transport properties of planar graphene/MoS2/graphene heterojunctions.

The electronic transport properties of in-plane graphene/MoS2/graphene heterojunctions are studied using density functional theory and the nonequilibrium Green's function method. It is found that different covalent bond connections cause different electron distributions, such as accumulation or depletion, on the contact surface. The C-S structure exhibits more electron accumulation and depletion, indicating that the electrons can easily transfer from MoS2 to graphene. Since the three structures all form covalent or ionic bonds, the tunneling barrier for carriers is very small. The C-S structure exhibits a smaller p-type Schottky barrier, indicating that it has better transport properties than the other two structures. We found that the effective doping method can reduce the Schottky-barrier height (SBH), resulting in smaller contact resistance. Thus, the current-voltage curves of the undoped and doped C-S structures exhibit rectification and approximately linear characteristics under a given bias, which agrees with experimental reports. These results provide insight for designing high-performance devices.