Flexible H2S sensors: Fabricated by growing NO2-UiO-66 on electrospun nanofibers for detecting ultralow concentration H2S

Abstract

Wearable electronics based on metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) capable of monitoring various environmental pollutants is a promising approach for realizing gas sensing of chemical information. However, their sensing application combined with electronic textile with breathable, washable and flexible features has not been completely established yet. Herein, we describe a facile and effective strategy to fabricate flexible gas sensor for rapidly detecting hydrogen sulfide (H2S) through integrating NO2-UiO-66 on electrospun nanofibers membrane (NO2-UiO-66 NM) firmly and uniformly. Different from the inherent brittleness and poor processability of powder MOFs, the achieved NO2-UiO-66 NM delivers enhanced porosity and surface area, outstanding flexibility, desirable breathability, stable to washing and strong accessibility, more suitable for practical applications. Consequently, the fabricated NO2-UiO-66 NM sensor exhibits a significantly high detection selectivity for H2S among various analytes (H2S, SO2, C6H6, CO and NH3) and remarkable sensitivity for H2S with unprecedentedly ultralow detection limit reaching down to 10 ppb. Moreover, the sensing performance can be greatly remained after around five weeks at concentration down to 1 ppm; also, there are slight impact of deformation on sensing activities, revealing superior H2S sensing stability. This study offers a feasible solution to develop electronic textiles for chemical sensing application.