Fast Response and High Sensitivity of Reduced Graphene Oxide/Gold Nano-hybrid for LPG Sensors at Room Temperature

This work presents the sensing properties of reduced graphene oxide/gold (rGO/Au) nano-hybrid thin films under liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at room temperature. The measurements of the electrical sensitivity of the films exhibit an extremely rapid response (similar to 5 s), fast recovery (similar to 35 s), good reproducibility, high sensitivity and remarkable stability when exposed to a 50 ppm concentration of LPG. The hybrid formation of rGO/Au is confirmed using x-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern, UV-visible absorption spectrometry, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX) methods. The sensing behavior of the rGO/Au films is compared to graphene oxide and reduced graphene oxide nano-thin films, and the results indicate that the electrical conductivity of the film has significantly improved due to the presence of Au nanoparticles.