Large-scale synthesis of single-crystalline self-standing SnSe nanoplate arrays for wearable gas sensors.

Advances in two-dimensional semiconducting thin films enable the realization of wearable electronic devices in the form factor of flexible substrate/thin films that can be seamlessly adapted in our daily lives. For wearable gas sensing, two-dimensional materials, such as SnSe, are particularly favorable because of their high surface-to-volume ratio and strong adsorption of gas molecules. Chemical vapor deposition and liquid/mechanical exfoliation are the widely applied techniques to obtain SnSe thin films. However, these methods normally result in non-uniform and isolated flakes which cannot apply to the practical industrial-scale wearable electronic devices. Here, we demonstrate large-scale (10 cm × 10 cm), uniform, and self-standing SnSe nanoplate arrays by co-evaporation process on flexible polyimide substrates. Both structural and morphological properties of the resulting SnSe nanoplates are systematically investigated. Particularly, the single-crystalline SnSe nanoplates are achieved. Furthermore, we explore the application of the polyimide/SnSe nanoplate arrays as wearable gas sensors for detecting methane. The wearable gas sensors show high sensitivity, fast response and recovery, and good uniformity. Our approach not only provides an efficient technique to obtain large-area, uniform and high-quality single-crystalline SnSe nanoplates, but also impacts on the future developments of layered metal dichalcogenides-based wearable devices.