Phase-dependent gas sensitivity of MoS2 chemical sensors investigated with phase-locked MoS2

In the present study, phase-dependent gas sensitivities of MoS2 chemical sensors were examined. While 1T-phase MoS2 (1T-MoS2) has shown better chemical sensitivity than has 2H-phase MoS2 (2H-MoS2), the instability of the 1T phase has been hindering applications of 1T-MoS2 as chemical sensors. Here, the chemical sensitivity of MoS2 locked in its 1T phase by using a ZnO phase lock was investigated. To develop MoS2 chemical sensors locked in the 1T phase, we synthesized a multi-dimensional nanomaterial by growing ZnO nanorods onto MoS2 nanosheets (ZnO@1T-MoS2). Raman spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analyses of such phase-locked 1T-MoS2 subjected to flash light irradiation 100 times confirmed its robustness. ZnO nanomaterials hybridized on MoS2 nanosheets not only froze the MoS2 at its 1T phase, but also increased the active surface area for chemical sensing. The resulting hybridized material showed better response, namely better sensitivity, to NO2 gas exposure at room temperature than did 1T-MoS2 and 2H-MoS2. This result indicated that increased surface area and heterojunction formation between MoS2 and ZnO constitute a more promising route for improving sensitivity than using the 1T phase itself.