Carbon dots/Na2Ti6O13 hetero-composite for highly efficient and prompt hydrogen sensor at room temperature

The development of a hydrogen gas sensor that operates at room temperature, features low cost, rapid response, and outstanding selectivity remains a pressing challenge. In this study, we synthesized carbon dots-activated Na 2 Ti 6 O 13 nanorods nanocomposites via a straightforward and efficient hydrothermal method. The characterization of CDs/Na 2 Ti 6 O 13 presents CDs nanodots of about 10∼15 nm were uniformly anchored on the surface of Na 2 Ti 6 O 13 nanorods. Compared with pure Na 2 Ti 6 O 13 , 2 wt% CDs/Na 2 Ti 6 O 13 exhibits higher response (3.64) to 1000 ppm hydrogen, superior selectivity. It is noticeable that the response time has reduced from 225 s to 46 s, which is critical for hydrogen detection. The enhanced hydrogen sensing performance of the CDs/Na 2 Ti 6 O 13 hetero-composite sensor can be primarily ascribed to the heterojunction formation and the augmentation of active sites induced by the incorporation of CDs. Our work confirmed that carbon dots decorated Na 2 Ti 6 O 13 nanorods have satisfied the application needs of hydrogen detection at room temperature.