Noble-Nanoparticle-Decorated Ti₃C₂T MXenes for Highly Sensitive Volatile Organic Compound Detection

Two-dimensional transition-metal carbides and nitrides (MXenes) have been regarded as promising sensing materials because of their high surface-to-volume ratios and outstanding electronic, optical, and mechanical properties with versatile transition-metal and surface chemistries. However, weak gas-molecule adsorption of MXenes poses a serious limitation to their sensitivity and selectivity, particularly for trace amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at room temperature. To deal with these issues, Au-decorated MXenes are synthesized by a facile solution mixing method for room-temperature sensing of a wide variety of oxygen-based and hydrocarbon-based VOCs. Dynamic sensing experiments reveal that optimal decoration of Au nanoparticles (NPs) on Ti₃C₂T MXene significantly elevates the response and selectivity of the flexible sensors, especially in detecting formaldehyde. Au-Ti₃C₂T gas sensors exhibited an extremely low limit of detection of 92 ppb for formaldehyde at room temperature. Au-Ti₃C₂T provides reliable gas response, low noise level, ultrahigh signal-to-noise ratio, high selectivity, as well as parts per billion level of formaldehyde detection. The prominent mechanism for Au-Ti₃C₂T in sensing formaldehyde is elucidated theoretically from density functional theory simulations. The results presented here strongly suggest that decorating noble-metal NPs on MXenes is a feasible strategy for the development of next-generation ultrasensitive sensors for Internet of Things.