Water-Selective Nanostructured Dehumidifiers for Molecular Sensing Spaces

• Published in: ACS sensors Vol. 7; no. 2; pp. 534 - 544
• Main Authors: Liu, Jiangyang, Nagashima, Kazuki, Hosomi, Takuro, Lei, Wenjin, Zhang, Guozhu, Takahashi, Tsunaki, Zhao, Xixi, Hanai, Yosuke, Nakao, Atsuo, Nakatani, Masaya, Tanaka, Wataru, Saito, Hikaru, Kanai, Masaki, Shimada, Taisuke, Yasui, Takao, Baba, Yoshinobu, Yanagida, Takeshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 25.02.2022
• Subjects: Calcium Chloride; Humidity; Nanowires; Water; Zinc Oxide; moisture effect; molecular and gas sensors; nanostructured dehumidifier; nanowires; CaCl2·nH2O
• ISSN: 2379-3694; 2379-3694
• DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.1c02378

Humidity and moisture effects, frequently called water poisoning, in surroundings are inevitable for various molecular sensing devices, strongly affecting their sensing characteristics. Here, we demonstrate a water-selective nanostructured dehumidifier composed of ZnO/TiO2/CaCl2 core–shell heterostructured nanowires for molecular sensing spaces. The fabricated nanostructured dehumidifier is highly water-selective without detrimental adsorptions of various volatile organic compound molecules and can be repeatedly operated. The thermally controllable and reversible dehydration process of CaCl2·nH2O thin nanolayers on hydrophilic ZnO/TiO2 nanowire surfaces plays a vital role in such water-selective and repeatable dehumidifying operations. Furthermore, the limitation of detection for sensing acetone and nonanal molecules in the presence of moisture (relative humidity ∼ 90%) was improved more than 20 times using nanocomposite sensors by operating the developed nanostructured dehumidifier. Thus, the proposed water-selective nanostructured dehumidifier offers a rational strategy and platform to overcome water poisoning issues for various molecular and gas sensors.