Mesoporous and Encapsulated InO/TiCT Schottky Heterojunctions for Rapid and ppb-Level NO Detection at Room Temperature.

Rapid and ultrasensitive detection of toxic gases at room temperature is highly desired in health protection but presents grand challenges in the sensing materials reported so far. Here, we present a gas sensor based on novel zero dimensional (0D)/two dimensional (2D) indium oxide (InO)/titanium carbide (TiCT) Schottky heterostructures with a high surface area and rich oxygen vacancies for parts per billion (ppb) level nitrogen dioxide (NO) detection at room temperature. The InO/TiCT gas sensor exhibits a fast response time (4 s), good response (193.45% to 250 ppb NO), high selectivity, and excellent cycling stability. The rich surface oxygen vacancies play the role of active sites for the adsorption of NO molecules, and the Schottky junctions effectively adjust the charge-transfer behavior through the conduction tunnel in the sensing material. Furthermore, InO nanoparticles almost fully cover the TiCT nanosheets which can avoid the oxidation of TiCT, thus contributing to the good cycling stability of the sensing materials. This work sheds light on the sensing mechanism of heterojunction nanostructures and provides an efficient pathway to construct high-performance gas sensors through the rational design of active sites.