A polymer based self-powered ethanol gas sensor to eliminate the interference of ultraviolet light

Abstract As a kind of gas sensors, self-powered gas sensor shows significant advantages in large-scale applications such as the internet of things. On the other hand, triboelectric nanogenerator is an ideal power source to fabricate self-powered gas sensor for its high power output and wide variety of driving source. More importantly, it is indispensable to eliminate the influence of environmental factors considering the practical application of gas sensors. In this work, by utilizing the polymer materials with wide bandgap, a polymer based self-powered ethanol gas sensor (PB-SPES) is designed to eliminate the influence of ultraviolet (UV) light in the environment and detect the ethanol gas reliably. Compared with a zinc oxide (ZnO) based self-powered ethanol gas sensor, the PB-SPES shows good stability under UV light illumination.