Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is an important contaminant that poses a severe threat to environmental sustainability. Traditional inorganic NO2 gas detectors are generally used under harsh operating conditions and employ environmentally unfriendly resources, thus preventing widespread practical applications. Herein, self-assembled peptide microtubes (SPMTs) are combined with SnO2 nanoparticles (NPs) to develop a bioinspired NO2 gas sensor. The sensor incorporated with SPMTs exhibits a lower resistance and a stronger response under visible light irradiation. Under exposure to 4.7-mW/cm2 white light irradiation, the device exhibits a response of 412 and a resistance of only 97 MΩ, contrast to 318 and 340 MΩ for the bare SnO2-based counterpart under the same test conditions. This work exemplifies the feasibility of using bioinspired approach employing peptides self-assembly strategy to engineer comprehensive pollution detectors, potentially enabling development in the environmentally friendly sensing field.
Keywords: Molecular manufacturing; NO(2) sensors; Peptides; Self-assembly; Visible light.
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