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A gas sensor made from graphene vertical field effect transistor (VGr-FET) has been fabricated using graphene as the source electrode, C60 thin film as the semiconductor layer and aluminum thin film as the drain electrode. The on/off ratio of transistor gated by bottom electrode with ionic liquid gel as dielectric layer is derived to be 103 from measured source–drain current Ids. The apparent energy barrier height between the graphene and polycrystalline fullerene was calculated from the model of heterojunction diode I–V response curves. The barrier height φBH was altered by the gating potential vertically applied on graphene sheet, resulting the large on/off ratio of the transistor. The effect of surface adsorption of water vapor, oxygen, ammonia and isoprene gas phase molecules on the Ids was measured. The lower limit of detection (LOD) for ammonia (86 ppb) than that of isoprene (420 ppb) is attributed to the donor nature of ammonia contact with p-type graphene, and the adsorbed donor leads to a corresponding positive gating effect to the VGr-FET. This facile, low cost and quick responsive device shows promise for early diagnose of severe human respiratory diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]