Ultrasensitive gas detection of large-area boron-doped graphene

Journal Article · Mon Nov 02 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1505993112· OSTI ID:1235191

Lv, Ruitao ^[1]; Chen, Gugang ^[2]; Li, Qing ^[3]; McCreary, Amber ^[4]; Botello-Méndez, Andrés ^[5]; Morozov, S. V. ^[6]; Liang, Liangbo  ^[7]; Declerck, Xavier ^[5]; Perea-López, Nestor ^[4]; Cullen, David A. ^[8]; Feng, Simin ^[4]; Elías, Ana Laura ^[4]; Cruz-Silva, Rodolfo ^[9]; Fujisawa, Kazunori ^[4]; Endo, Morinobu ^[9]; Kang, Feiyu ^[10]; Charlier, Jean-Christophe ^[5]; Meunier, Vincent ^[7]; Pan, Minghu ^[11]; Harutyunyan, Avetik R. ^[2] ; Novoselov, Konstantin S. ^[6]; Terrones, Mauricio ^[12]

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1. Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education of China, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China,, Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802,, Center for 2-Dimensional and Layered Materials, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802,
2. Honda Research Institute USA Inc., Columbus, OH 43212,
3. Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials and Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Science and Technology, Soochow University, Jiangsu 215123, China,
4. Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802,, Center for 2-Dimensional and Layered Materials, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802,
5. Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences, Université catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium,
6. School of Physics &, Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom,
7. Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY 12180,
8. Materials Science &, Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831,
9. Research Center for Exotic Nanocarbons, Shinshu University, Wakasato 4-17-1, Nagano 380-8553, Japan,
10. Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials of Ministry of Education of China, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China,
11. School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China,
12. Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802,, Center for 2-Dimensional and Layered Materials, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802,, Research Center for Exotic Nanocarbons, Shinshu University, Wakasato 4-17-1, Nagano 380-8553, Japan,, Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802,, Department of Materials Science &, Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802

Heteroatom doping is an efficient way to modify the chemical and electronic properties of graphene. In particular, boron doping is expected to induce a p-type conducting behavior to pristine (undoped) graphene which could lead to diverse applications. But, the experimental progress on atomic scale visualization and sensing properties of large-area boron-doped graphene (BG) sheets is still very scarce. This work describes the controlled growth of centimeter size, high-crystallinity BG sheets. Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy are used to visualize the atomic structure and the local density of states around boron dopants. We confirmed that BG behaves as a p-type conductor and a unique croissant-like feature is frequently observed within the BG lattice, which is caused by the presence of B-C trimmers embedded within the hexagonal lattice. Interestingly, it is demonstrated for the first time that BG exhibits unique sensing capabilities when detecting toxic gases, such as NO₂ and NH₃ , being able to detect extremely low concentrations (e.g. parts per trillion, parts per billion). Our work envisions that other attractive applications could now be explored based on as-synthesized BG.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS); AC05-00OR22725; 2014CB932401; ARO-
• OSTI ID: 1235191
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1265826
• Journal Information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Vol. 112 Journal Issue: 47; ISSN 0027-8424
• Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
graphene
doping
gas sensing
STM
STS