Room Temperature Ammonia Sensing of MoS2 2D Sheets Decorated with Polyaniline (PANI)

Abstract

In the present work, a selective room temperature (RT) operable ammonia (NH₃) sensor based on molybdenum disulphide (MoS₂) nanosheet decorated with polyaniline (PANI) (MoS₂-PANI) is successfully developed. The sensor material is prepared by simple chemical in-situ polymerisation of aniline. Prior to the gas sensing studies, morphological, thermal and compositional studies are carried out. These studies reveal good incorporation of PANI into MoS₂ nanosheets. The gas sensing property of MoS₂-PANI sensors is studied and compared with the sensor based on bare MoS₂ and bare PANI. The bare PANI shows opposite gas sensing properties compared to the bare MoS₂. However, the sensing nature of PANI is followed in the composite, but with better sensing and stability. The sensing behaviour is observed to be excellent in terms of stability, selectivity, sensitivity, response and recovery over the pure MoS₂ sensor.