Abstract:

Mo₆S₃I₆ nanowire networks of interest are found to change their resistance in response to the presence of analyte vapors. The vapor sensing behavior is quantitatively described very well phenomenologically in terms of the concentration of adsorbed analyte molecules in the contact tunneling junctions, and an expression is derived for the dynamics and sensor resistance in terms of analyte vapor pressure. The time response of the sensor is observed to follow simple adsorption–desorption kinetics. The network sensor shows very clear selectivity, whereby the response is related to the dipole moment of the analyte. The response function favors rapid detection of small analyte concentrations.