Zhu He, Li Qiang, Ren Yang, Gao Qilong, Chen Jun, Wang Na, Deng Jinxia, Xing Xianran
Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China.
Argonne National Laboratory, X-Ray Science Division, Argonne, IL, 60439, USA.
Small. 2018 Mar;14(13):e1703974. doi: 10.1002/smll.201703974. Epub 2018 Jan 29.
The efficiency of gas sensors varies enormously from fundamental study to practical application. This big gap comes mainly from the complex and unpredictable effect of atmospheric environment, especially in humidity. Here, the cross-sensitivity to humidity of a SnO sensor from local structural and lattice evolutions is studied. The sensing response of ethanol is found to be efficiently activated by adsorbing trace of water but inhibited as humidity increases. By X-ray diffraction, pair distribution function of synchrotron and ab initio calculations, the independent effect of water and ethanol on lattice and local structure are clearly revealed, which elucidate the intricate sensing reactions. The formation of hydrogen bonds and repulsion of ethoxides play key roles in the structural distortions, and also in adsorption energies that are critical to the sensitive behavior. The results show the sensor performance coupled with local structural evolution, which provides a new insight into the controversial effects of humidity on SnO sensors.
从基础研究到实际应用，气体传感器的效率差异巨大。这一巨大差距主要源于大气环境的复杂且不可预测的影响，尤其是在湿度方面。在此，研究了基于局部结构和晶格演化的SnO传感器对湿度的交叉敏感性。发现吸附微量水可有效激活乙醇的传感响应，但随着湿度增加而受到抑制。通过X射线衍射、同步加速器对分布函数和从头算计算，清晰揭示了水和乙醇对晶格及局部结构的独立影响，这阐明了复杂的传感反应。氢键的形成和乙氧基的排斥在结构畸变以及对敏感行为至关重要的吸附能中起关键作用。结果表明传感器性能与局部结构演化相关联，这为湿度对SnO传感器的争议性影响提供了新的见解。
