Self-Powered Nitrogen Dioxide Sensor Based on Pd-Decorated ZnO/MoSe(2) Nanocomposite Driven by Triboelectric Nanogenerator

This paper introduces a high-performance self-powered nitrogen dioxide gas sensor based on Pd-modified ZnO/MoSe(2) nanocomposites. Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibers were prepared by high-voltage electrospinning and tribological nanogenerators (TENGs) were designed. The output voltage of TENG and the performance of the generator at different frequencies were measured. The absolute value of the maximum positive and negative voltage exceeds 200 V. Then, the output voltage of a single ZnO thin-film sensor, Pd@ZnO thin-film sensor and Pd@ZnO/MoSe(2) thin-film sensor was tested by using the energy generated by TENG at 5 Hz, when the thin-film sensor was exposed to 1–50 ppm NO(2) gas. The experimental results showed that the sensing response of the Pd@ZnO/MoSe(2) thin-film sensor was higher than that of the single ZnO film sensor and Pd@ZnO thin-film sensor. The TENG-driven response rate of the Pd@ZnO/MoSe(2) sensor on exposure to 50 ppm NO(2) gas was 13.8. At the same time, the sensor had good repeatability and selectivity. The synthetic Pd@ZnO/MoSe(2) ternary nanocomposite was an ideal material for the NO(2) sensor, with excellent structure and performance.