UV-light-enhanced room temperature NO2 gas-sensing performances based on sulfur-doped graphitic carbon nitride nanoflakes

Two-dimensional graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4) has generated tremendous attention in room temperature (RT) gas-sensing applications because of its physicochemical characteristics. Especially, due to its tunable electronic structure, g-C3N4 nanostructure induced by intrinsic doping has proved to be a potential candidate for RT NO2 gas sensors. In this work, pristine g-C3N4 nanoflakes (M-GCN) and sulfur-doped g-C3N4 nanoflakes (T-GCN) were successfully synthesized using melamine and thiourea for RT NO2 gas detection. The T-GCN sensor produces excellent sensitivity of 13.35% and selectivity for NO2 gas (100 ppm) at RT as compared to M-GCN sensor responses. Fascinatingly, under the UV light illumination (365 nm), the sensitivity of the T-GCN sensor exhibited a significant enhancement by 37.7%, which was similar to 2.81-fold times with high selectivity, fast response/recovery times, (81 s/69 s) and long-term stability, as compared to the dark condition. The higher gas sensing performances under UV light could be ascribed to the effective generation of abundant charge carriers that further lead to improving the sensitivity and selectivity of the T-GCN sensor. Moreover, the enhanced functional groups, defect sites, porosity, and high surface area of T-GCN resulted in augmented sensing performance in both dark and UV light conditions. The route of nanostructure-induced intrinsic doping to improve the gas sensing fidelity could provide new insights for the development of RT gas sensing applications.

Automated summary

In this study, sulfur-doped two-dimensional graphitic carbon nitride (T-GCN) nanoflakes were successfully synthesized for room temperature NO2 gas detection. The T-GCN sensor showed high sensitivity and selectivity towards NO2 gas at room temperature, and exhibited significant enhancement under UV light illumination. This research provides insights into improving gas sensor performance by inducing intrinsic doping through nanostructures.