Assessment of the gas sensing properties of rGO-ZnO with different morphologies for the detection of O3

• Grant number: 22/06404-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2022
• End date: September 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Valmor Roberto Mastelaro
• Grantee: Rayssa Silva Correia
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07296-2 - CDMF - Center for the Development of Functional Materials, AP.CEPID

Abstract

Over the last decade, the growing development of new gas sensing technologies opened new paths towards faster, more precise, and reliable monitoring systems in several areas, such as industrial safety management, smart farming, food quality assessment, diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and others. The concepts of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0 have been pointed out as a new technological revolution that expands, even more, the demand for new gas sensing technologies. Hence, the new generations of gas sensors face the challenges of being simple, cost-effective, sensitive, selective, stable, and operating with low power consumption for portable electronics. Among all the semiconductors suitable as sensing materials, graphene-based nanocomposites are especially promising due to its intrinsic large specific surface area and high electronic mobility. Such nanocomposites appear to be very attractive because of their excellent sensing properties, potential scalability, production costs, and potential operation at lower temperatures than sensors based on traditional semiconducting metal oxides. Despite the interests of such nanocomposites for gas sensing applications, little is known regarding the effect that different nanoparticles morphologies have on the reduced graphene oxide gas sensing properties. The present undergraduate research proposal aims to prepare different morphologies of nanostructured ZnO and combine this material with reduced graphene oxide. The materials prepared will be tested regarding its sensitivity and stability for ozone detection.