Alignment of Vertically Standing Black Phosphorus Ribbons via Nanoskiving for Enhanced Gas Sensing Applications

The edge sites of black phosphorus (BP) present promising potential for gas sensing, due to their exceptional adsorption capacity and electronic reactivity. However, achieving high-yield fabrication of fully exposed edge sites remains a challenge. In this study, the nanoskiving technique is utilized to cut the basal plane of BP, producing vertically standing BP ribbons with fully exposed edge sites. By experimentally adjusting the alignment angle between the sample and the diamond cutting tool, and further investigating the cutting mechanism via molecular dynamics simulations, precise BP ribbons are fabricated, enabling tunable structural and electronic properties. This method demonstrates exceptional processing efficiency, achieving high-output fabrication of BP ribbon-based gas sensors. Compared to the basal plane, these sensors exhibite enhanced sensitivity and rapid response times (τads = 3.3 s, τdes = 14.1 s), attributed to the synergistic effects of strong adsorption and abundant active sites, as supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Furthermore, a wireless gas sensing system based on BP ribbons is developed to detect ppm-level NO₂ in simulated leakage scenarios, highlighting its practical application potential. This work presents a scalable and efficient approach for fabricating BP ribbon-based gas sensors, promoting the exploration of gas sensing applications in this emerging field.