Ordered Mesoporous Ag–ZnO@g‐CN Nanohybrid as Highly Efficient Bifunctional Sensing Material

The development of highly efficient and multifunctional sensors for accurately detecting indoor climate has always remained a challenging task. In this work, an important progress for nanocasting synthesis of ordered mesoporous Ag–ZnO‐loaded graphitic carbon nitride (g‐CN) prepared through template inversion of mesoporous silica, KIT‐6, is presented. The cubic 3D ordered mesoporous Ag–ZnO@g‐CN nanohybrid demonstrates excellent sensitivity, rapid response/recovery (5.1/2 s), excellent reversibility (0.3%), high stability, and negligible hysteresis (0.5%) to relative humidity (%RH) in the 11–98%RH range. Besides, it shows outstanding selective response (R = Ra/Rg) of 62.4 and 37.6 under dry and 90%RH environment, respectively, along with a fast response/recovery (16.1/10.5 s) time toward detection of acetone at 200 °C. In addition, the sensor shows excellent response at significant lower operating temperatures (R = 3.2 at 60 °C and R = 6.7 at 80 °C) to 50 ppm acetone gas. Compared to mesoporous Ag–ZnO, the g‐CN supported Ag–ZnO nanocomposite shows ≈1.8 times better response to acetone while marking an impressive reduction in optimized operating temperature by 50 °C. The findings in this study add insight and assist in the further optimization of this new class of 2D layered ordered mesoporous materials in realizing next‐generation sensors with multiple utilities. In this work, a bifunctional sensor is fabricated by using Ag–ZnO‐loaded mesoporous g‐CN for detecting %RH and acetone gas. The nanohybrid sensor shows excellent sensitivity, selectivity, rapid response/recovery, and reversibility to %RH and acetone. The sensor is also able to detect acetone at lower operating temperatures thus embracing its utility in the development of handheld portable devices.