Bio-Inspired Nanoengineered Wood for Scalable Monolithic Gas Sensor Fabrication.

Gu, Mingwei; Zhong, Yihong; Hu, Jing; Zhang, Tuo; Mei, Shiliang; Shen, Hao; Miao, Sheng; Chen, Liguo et al. · Adv Mater · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Insects exhibit exceptional olfactory abilities due to the synergistic interaction between porous sensilla and sensory receptors, optimizing gas transmission and capture. Inspired by this, a scalable structure of WS<sub>2</sub>-functionalized nanoengineered wood (WS<sub>2</sub>-NEW) for bio-inspired gas sensors is designed. A multiscale sensing network mimicking insect receptor synergy by in-situ loading WS<sub>2</sub> nanosheets into vertically aligned microchannels formed by lignin removal, integrated with cross-sectional 3D interdigital electrodes is developed. The nanoengineered wood enables selective NO<sub>2</sub> adsorption and optimized charge transfer through engineered gas transport pathways and defect-rich active sites. With the optimized 3D electrode structure, WS₂-NEW facilitates rapid gas transmission and real-time signal transduction, achieving highly sensitive NO<sub>2</sub> detection at room temperature with a detection limit as low as 50 ppb. Utilizing wood's processability, WS<sub>2</sub>-NEW has demonstrated the potential for large-scale manufacturing via simple cutting techniques. A wireless sensor watch based on WS<sub>2</sub>-NEW for real-time NO<sub>2</sub> detection highlights its potential in wearable devices. This work proposes an innovative strategy for the manufacturing of gas sensors.