Conceptual Examination of Pt Atom-Adorned WTe for Improved Adsorption and Identification of CO and CH in Dissolved Gas Analysis.

The online monitoring of transformer insulation is crucial for ensuring power system stability and safety. Dissolved gas analysis (DGA), employing highly sensitive gas sensors to detect dissolved gas in transformer oil, offers a promising means to assess equipment insulation performance. Based on density functional theory (DFT), platinum modification of a WTe monolayer was studied and the adsorption behavior of CO and CH on the Pt-WTe monolayer was simulated. The results showed that the Pt atom could be firmly anchored to the W atoms in the WTe monolayer, with a binding energy of -3.12 eV. The Pt-WTe monolayer showed a trend toward chemical adsorption to CO and CH with adsorption energies of -2.46 and -1.88 eV, respectively, highlighting a stronger ability of Pt-WTe to adsorb CO compared with CH. Analyses of the band structure (BS) and density of states (DOS) revealed altered electronic properties in the Pt-WTe monolayer after gas adsorption. The bandgap decreased to 1.082 eV in the CO system and 1.084 eV in the CH system, indicating a stronger interaction of Pt-WTe with CO, corroborated by the analysis of DOS. Moreover, the observed change in work function (WF) was more significant in CO systems, suggesting the potential of Pt-WTe as a WF-based gas sensor for CO detection. This study unveils the gas-sensing potential of the Pt-WTe monolayer for transformer status evaluation, paving the way for the development of gas sensor preparation for DGA.