Facile synthesis of mesoporous WO3@graphene aerogel nanocomposites for low-temperature acetone sensing

Nanocomposites constructed by combining mesoporous metal oxides and graphene have received tremendous attention in wide fields of catalysis, energy storage and conversion, gas sensing and so on. Herein, we present a facile interface-induced co-assembly process to synthesize the mesoporous WO₃@graphene aerogel nanocomposites (denoted as mWO₃@GA), in which graphene aerogel (GA) was used as a macroporous substrate, mesoporous WO₃ was uniformly coated on both sides of graphene sheets through a solvent evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) strategy using diblock copolymer poly(ethylene oxide)-b-polystyrene (PEO-b-PS) as a template. The resultant mWO₃@GA nanocomposites possess well-interconnected macroporous graphene networks covered by mesoporous WO₃ layer with a uniform pore size of 19 nm, high surface area of 167 m²/g and large pore volume of 0.26 cm³/g. The gas sensing performance of mWO₃@GA nanocomposites toward acetone and other gases was studied, showing a high selectivity and great response to acetone at low temperature of 150 °C, which could be developed as a promising candidate as novel sensors for VOCs detection.