Room temperature and high response ethanol sensor based on two dimensional hybrid nanostructures of WS₂/GONRs

Here in this research, room temperature ethanol and humidity sensors were prepared based on two dimensional (2D) hybrid nanostructures of tungsten di-sulfide (WS₂) nanosheets and graphene oxide nanoribbons (GONRs) as GOWS. The characterization results based on scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (ESD), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed the hybrid formations. Ethanol sensing of drop-casted GOWS films on SiO₂ substrate indicated increasing in gas response up to 5 and 55 times higher compared to pristine GONRs and WS₂ films respectively. The sensing performance of GOWS hybrid nanostructures was investigated in different concentrations of WS₂, and the highest response was about 126.5 at 1 ppm of ethanol in 40% relative humidity (R.H.) for WS₂/GONRs molar ratio of 10. Flexibility of GOWS was studied on Kapton substrate with bending radius of 1 cm, and the gas response decreased less than 10% after 30th bending cycles. The high response and flexibility of the sensors inspired that GOWS are promising materials for fabrication of wearable gas sensing devices.