Carbonized polymer dots activated hierarchical tungsten oxide for efficient and stable triethylamine sensor.

Hierarchical metal oxide semiconductors present great potential in detecting toxic and hazardous gases with special emphasis on the regulation of their structures and compositions to advance sensor performance. Herein, marine polysaccharide derived carbonized polymer dots (CPDs) are presented to activate hierarchical tungsten oxide (WO) as efficient and stable triethylamine sensor. Owing to the promoted receptor and transducer function of the oxide/polymer/carbon heterostructure, the CPDs/WO sensor exhibits extraordinary sensing characteristics for triethylamine detection, including higher response (4.3 times), faster response/recovery (4.3 times/2.1 times), lower operating temperature (30 °C) and lower detection limit (2.4 times) as compared with hierarchical WO sensor, which are also superior to most of the previous reports related to triethylamine detection. Importantly, the adsorption-desorption kinetic of WO is found to be enhanced by 67 times after introducing CPDs, mainly derived from abundant slit-like channels for gas diffuse, desirable defect feature as reactive sites, and favorable 0D-2D interface for charge transfer and transport. This work not only establishes an alternative strategy for promoting metal oxide semiconductor gas sensors but also provides a fundamental understanding of CPDs in gas-sensing field.