Fabrication of Pd-Decorated MoSe2 nanoflowers and density functional theory simulation toward ammonia sensing

Abstract

This letter demonstrated a high-performance ammonia gas sensor based on Pd-decorated MoSe2 nanoflower nanostructure. The hydrothermally prepared Pd-MoSe2 nanofilm was examined by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The gas sensing performance of the Pd-MoSe2 film sensor was investigated upon exposure to different concentrations of ammonia gas at room temperature (RT). The Pd-MoSe2 film sensor exhibits a remarkable sensing performance toward ammonia gas, including high sensitivity, outstanding repeatability, good selectivity, and stability. The sensing mechanism of Pd-MoSe2 film toward ammonia was discovered by density functional theory based on the first principle. This letter confirmed that Pd-decorated MoSe2 nanoflowers were good candidates for high-performance ammonia sensing at RT.