Simple Synthesis of Cobalt Carbonate Hydroxide Hydrate and Reduced Graphene Oxide Hybrid Structure for High-Performance Room Temperature NH3 Sensor

A novel hybrid structure sensor based on cobalt carbonate hydroxide hydrate (CCHH) and reduced graphene oxide (RGO) was designed for room temperature NH3 detection. This hybrid structure consisted of CCHH and RGO (synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method), in which RGO uniformly dispersed in CCHH, being used as the gas sensing film. The resistivity of the hybrid structure was highly sensitive to the changes on NH3 concentration. CCHH in the hybrid structure was the sensing material and RGO was the conductive channel material. The hybrid structure could improve signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the sensitivity by obtaining the optimal mass proportion of RGO, since the proportion of RGO was directly related to sensitivity. The gas sensor with 0.4 wt% RGO showed the highest gas sensing response reach to 9% to 1 ppm NH3. Compared to a conventional gas sensor, the proposed sensor not only showed high gas sensing response at room temperature but also was easy to achieve large-scale production due to the good stability and simple synthesis process.