Liu Lingyue, Mao Chengliang, Fu Heyun, Qu Xiaolei, Zheng Shourong
State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210046, China.
Department of Chemistry, University of Toronto, 80 St. George Street, Toronto M5S3H6, Ontario, Canada.
ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Apr 5;15(13):16654-16663. doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c21410. Epub 2023 Feb 24.
Triethylamine (TEA) is a flammable and highly toxic gas, and the fast, accurate, and sensitive detection of gas TEA remains greatly challenging. Herein, we report a ZnO nanorod anchored with a single-atom Pt catalyst (Pt/ZnO) as a gas sensor for TEA detection. The sensor shows high selectivity and high response to gas TEA with a response value of 4170 at 200 °C, which is 92 times higher than that of pure ZnO. Moreover, the Pt/ZnO sensor has very short response and recovery times of only 34 and 76 s, respectively, and also has a high response to ppb-level TEA gas (100 ppb-21.6). The gas-sensing enhancement mechanism of the Pt/ZnO sensor to gas TEA was systematically investigated using band structure analysis, in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transformation spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations. The results show that the oxygen vacancies on Pt/ZnO can effectively activate the adsorbed oxygen. Moreover, chemical bonds can be formed between Pt single atoms and N atoms in TEA to achieve effective adsorption and activation of TEA molecules, facilitating the reaction between TEA and the adsorbed oxygen on Pt/ZnO, and thereby obtaining high gas-sensing performance. This work highlights the crucial role of Pt single-atom in improving the sensing performance for gas TEA detection, paving the way for developing more advanced gas sensors.
三乙胺（TEA）是一种易燃且剧毒的气体，对TEA气体进行快速、准确和灵敏的检测仍然极具挑战性。在此，我们报道了一种锚定有单原子铂催化剂（Pt/ZnO）的ZnO纳米棒作为用于检测TEA的气体传感器。该传感器对TEA气体表现出高选择性和高响应性，在200℃时响应值为4170，比纯ZnO高92倍。此外，Pt/ZnO传感器的响应和恢复时间非常短，分别仅为34秒和76秒，并且对ppb级TEA气体（100 ppb - 21.6）也有高响应。利用能带结构分析、原位漫反射红外傅里叶变换光谱和密度泛函理论计算系统地研究了Pt/ZnO传感器对TEA气体的气敏增强机理。结果表明，Pt/ZnO上的氧空位可以有效地激活吸附的氧。此外，Pt单原子与TEA中的N原子之间可以形成化学键，以实现对TEA分子的有效吸附和活化，促进TEA与Pt/ZnO上吸附的氧之间的反应，从而获得高的气敏性能。这项工作突出了Pt单原子在提高TEA气体检测传感性能方面的关键作用，为开发更先进的气体传感器铺平了道路。
