Detection of individual gas molecules adsorbed on graphene.

By F. Schedin, A.K. Geim, S. Morozov, Ernie W. Hill, P. Blake, M. Katsnelson, K. Novoselov. Nature Materials, 2006

7,485 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ultimate aim of any detection method is to achieve such a level of sensitivity that individual quanta of a measured entity can be resolved. In the case of chemical sensors, the quantum is one atom or molecule. Such resolution has so far been beyond the reach of any detection technique, including solid-state gas sensors hailed for their exceptional sensitivity. The fundamental reason limiting the resolution of such sensors is fluctuations due to thermal motion of charges and defects, which lead to intrinsic noise exceeding the sought-after signal from individual molecules, usually by many orders of magnitude. Here, we show that micrometre-size sensors made from graphene are capable of detecting individual events when a gas molecule attaches to or detaches from graphene's surface. The adsorbed molecules change the local carrier concentration in graphene one by one electron, which leads to step-like changes in resistance. The achieved sensitivity is due to the fact that graphene is an exceptionally low-noise material electronically, which makes it a promising candidate not only for chemical detectors but also for other applications where local probes sensitive to external charge, magnetic field or mechanical strain are required.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Materials Chemistry

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d0cec50c2ad5063c311e121944d4c123341ad22a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

In Materials Chemistry

Citations in the corpus

A novel hydrazine electrochemical sensor based on the high specific surface area graphene (2010, background): “These encouraging characteristics of graphene provide potential applications in synthesizing nanocomposites [22–25] and fabricating various microelectrical devices, such as battery [26], field-effect transistors [27], ultrasensitive sensors [28] and electromechanical resonators [29].”
New directions in science and technology: two-dimensional crystals (2011, background): “Graphene’s sensitivity to electrostatic charges allows for detection of single molecules [20] and DNA sequencing [21, 22].”
Impermeability of graphene and its applications (2013, methodology): “It has been used in several extraordinary applications, including ultrafast photo-detectors [20], single molecule detectors [21,22], ultrafast FETs [14,23–25], single-bacterial/”
Production, properties and potential of graphene (2010, background): “[147] Schedin F, Geim AK, Morozov SV, Hill EW, Blake P, Katsnelson MI, et al.”
Synthesis, characterization and electrochemical properties of functionalized graphene oxide (2012, background): “Graphene and graphene oxide are novel nanomaterials that have recently attracted a great deal of consideration due to their wide variety of applications in nanoelectronics [1], sensors [2], nanocomposites [3], batteries [4], supercapacitors and energy storage [5].”