In situ laser-assisted synthesis and patterning of graphene foam composites as a flexible gas sensing platform

Gas-sensitive semiconducting nanomaterials (e.g., metal oxides, graphene oxides, and transition metal dichalcogenides) and their heterojunctions hold great promise in chemiresistive gas sensors. However, they often require a separate synthesis method (e.g., hydrothermal, so-gel, and co-precipitation) and their integration on interdigitated electrodes (IDE) via casting is also associated with weak interfacial properties. This work demonstrates in situ laser-assisted synthesis and patterning of various sensing nanomaterials and their heterojunctions on laser-induced graphene (LIG) foam to form LIG composites as a flexible and stretchable gas sensing platform. The porous LIG line or pattern with nanomaterial precursors dispensed on top is scribed by laser to allow for in situ growth of corresponding nanomaterials. The versatility of the proposed method is highlighted through the creation of different types of gas-sensitive materials, including transition metal dichalcogenide (e.g., MoS₂), metal oxide (e.g., CuO), noble metal-doped metal oxide (e.g., Ag/ZnO) and composite metal oxides (e.g., In₂O₃/Cr₂O₃). By eliminating the IDE and separate heaters, the LIG gas sensing platform with self-heating also decreases the device complexity. The limit of detection (LOD) of the LIG gas sensor with in situ synthesized MoS₂, CuO, and Ag/ZnO to NO₂, H₂S, and trimethylamine (TMA) is 2.7, 9.8, and 5.6 ppb, respectively. Taken together with the high sensitivity, good selectivity, rapid response/recovery, and tunable operating temperature, the integrated LIG gas sensor array can identify multiple gas species in the environment or exhaled breath.