High efficiency xylene detection based on porous MoO3 nanosheets

Abstract Xylene is an important chemical material and one of indoor air pollution gases. Selective detection of xylene is very important in terms of security. However, the low concentration and high selectivity detection xylene are difficult to satisfy at the same time due to their high stability. Herein, we present a highly efficient porous MoO3 nanosheets based xylene vapor sensor. The porous MoO3 nanosheets was prepared by calcinating MoS2 nanosheets at 400 °C. Gas sensitivity test results show that the response values (Ra/Rg) of MoO3 nanosheets sensor to 10 ppm xylene is 9.1. Moreover, the MoO3 sensors has low limit of detection (LOD = 0.1 ppm), high selectivity, fast response/recovery speeds (7.1 s/6.8 s), and good stability. Furthermore, we also investigate the special sensitive mechanism by analyzing the characterization and gas sensitivity test results. This work will help to develop high performance xylene gas sensors and preparation of porous metal oxide semiconductor nanosheets from sulfide nanosheets.