Sustainable Approach toward the Development of Next-Generation Gas Sensors

The increase in the usage of non-biodegradable substrates and the generation of toxic wastes from laboratories has led to a sharp increase in the pollution caused by the electronics industry. In this study, we report on a novel approach to tackle this by successfully fabricating a completely biodegradable and eco-friendly chemiresistive gas sensor. The substrate was made of bioplastic and was coated with a silk mesh. This substrate was thoroughly studied for its flexibility, tensile strength, biodegradability, and thermal stability. It was found that the bioplastic/silk substrate exhibited superior results as compared to the bioplastic substrate without silk. Further, a green synthesized CuO/ZnO heterostructure from clove extract was utilized as a receptor layer. It was observed that the device fabricated on a bioplastic/silk substrate outperforms the device with bioplastic substrates at room temperature, as well as at elevated temperature (i.e., 50 °C). The device exhibited an ideal piezotronics behavior demonstrating that the chemiresistive gas sensor with green synthesized CuO/ZnO heterostructures on a bioplastic/silk substrate can be very well used over curvilinear surfaces. Therefore, the sustainable approach toward the development of biodegradable and eco-friendly toxic gas sensors taken in this study can be an alternative to the current high-temperature sensors.