Porous MoO3 nanosheets for conductometric gas sensors to detect diisopropylamine

To ensure production and life safety, it is urgent to efficiently and rapidly detect diisopropylamine, a toxic substance. In this study, porous MoO3 nanosheets about 5.5 nm thick and a pore size of 2–10 nm are successfully obtained. The gas sensing test indicated that the porous MoO3 nanosheets sensor show excellent performance for diisopropylamine at 217 °C, including ultrahigh response (30.4–10 ppm), low detection limit (10 ppb), and fast response speed (4.3 s). In addition, the sensor also demonstrated moisture resistance, superior selectivity, and long-term stability within 100 days. The sensing mechanism of MoO3 for diisopropylamine could be ascribed to the adsorption of molecules of the gas and the involvement in electron transport, which is experimentally confirmed. This study presents a new approach for the design of portable and sensitive amine gas sensors in the future. •A systematic exploration of the gas-sensitive properties of MoO3 for diisopropylamine is introduced for the first time.•Porous MoO3 nanosheets sensor exhibits excellent sensitivity to diisopropylamine gas with rapid response time.•The minimum detection limit of the porous MoO3 nanosheets sensor is 10 ppb diisopropylamine.•Porous MoO3 nanosheets sensor could be used in practical applications of herbicide residues.