N dopants triggered new active sites and fast charge transfer in MoS2 nanosheets for full Response-Recovery NO2 detection at room temperature

• N-doping p-type MoS 2 was prepared to against the native n-type propensity of MoS 2 . • N-doped MoS 2 exhibited the fast response/recovery to NO 2 at room temperature. • The mechanism was revealed by DFT calculations, kinetics, and Hall-Effect tests. • Fast response /recovery is attributed to new active sites and fast charge transfer. The slow response and incomplete recovery are primary bottlenecks for the sensing performance of 2D transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) at room temperature, which hinders their development for state-of-the-art gas sensors. Herein, we engineered N doped p-type MoS 2 against its native n-type propensity to enable a rapid room-temperature response/recovery detection of NO 2 . Compared to pristine n-type MoS 2 showing typical slow response and no recovery (1544 s/-), the prepared N-doped MoS 2 sensor exhibits a fast response/recovery (22/109 s) toward 10 ppm NO 2 at room temperature. In addition, the N dopants endow MoS 2 with a sensing response of 28% to 10 ppm NO 2 , ppb-level of detection limit (125 ppb), excellent selectivity, good repeatability, and humidity resistance. We underline the fast response/recovery mechanism of N-doped MoS 2 to be the N dopants triggered synergistic effect of new active sites and fast charge transfer based on density functional theory calculation and Hall-Effect measurement. We hope this result may shed a new light on the development of TMDs-based sensing materials aiming at improving their room-temperature response/recovery performance.