Alcohol Recognition by Flexible, Transparent and Highly Sensitive Graphene-Based Thin-Film Sensors

Chemical sensors detect a variety of chemicals across numerous fields, such as automobile, aerospace, safety, indoor air quality, environmental control, food, industrial production and medicine. We successfully assemble an alcohol-sensing device comprising a thin-film sensor made of graphene nanosheets (GNs) and bacterial cellulose nanofibers (BCNs). We show that the GN/BCN sensor has a high selectivity to ethanol by distinguishing liquid-phase or vapor-phase ethanol (C₂H₆O) from water (H₂O) intelligently with accurate transformation into electrical signals in devices. The BCN component of the film amplifies the ethanol sensitivity of the film, whereby the GN/BCN sensor has 12400% sensitivity for vapor-phase ethanol compared to the pure GN sensor, which has only 21% sensitivity. Finally, GN/BCN sensors demonstrate fast response/recovery times and a wide range of alcohol detection (10-100%). The superior sensing ability of GN/BCN compared to GNs alone is due to the improved wettability of BCNs and the ionization of liquids. We prove a facile, green, low-cost route for the assembly of ethanol-sensing devices with potential for vast application.