TiO$_{2}$-Decorated MoS$_{2}$ Nanocomposite for CO$_{2}$ Sensing At Room Temperature

Abstract

Continuous and real-time monitoring of carbon dioxide (CO $_{2}$ ) has become an urgent demand due to its significant impact on climate change, asphyxiation risks, agricultural productivity, and human health. Electrochemical sensors for CO $_{2}$ monitoring face challenges, such as slow response time, high operating temperature, and lack of selectivity. To overcome these challenges, we propose a highly selective room-temperature (RT) CO $_{2}$ detection sensor based on TiO $_{2}$ -MoS $_{2}$ nanocomposite (NC), which is manufactured using a screen printing methodology. The fabricated sensor achieved a response of approximately 2.11% and response/recovery times of nearly 102/37s at 1000 ppm. The sensitivity is observed to be approximately 0.0032%/ppm with an excellent response for the CO $_{2}$ concentration range of 500–5000 ppm. Despite the typically low selectivity of unreactive CO $_{2}$ gas, the fabricated sensor exhibits high selectivity, with a response of around 2.21× higher than that of the CO gas with the next highest response. The scalable fabrication methodology and RT operation make TiO $_{2}$ -MoS $_{2}$ sensor a highly viable candidate for production through a cost-effective and high performance CO $_{2}$ sensing.