Sensor to detect volatile organic compounds emitted by plants

Abstract

As agricultural demands for food increases due to the population rise, it is necessary to ensure that the increasing food demands are met. However, sudden infection of plant diseases can be detrimental to this cause. One way to eliminate this problem is to monitor the health of the plants real time using sensors. To monitor the health of the plants, plant emitted volatile organic compounds (VOC) can be used as a reliable biomarker. In this report, to explore the potential use of sensors in monitoring plant health, a chemiresistive sensor was fabricated and its response to plant emitted VOCs were investigated. The gas sensing performance of the fabricated sensor was tested with the α-pinene VOC. The chemiresistive sensor was fabricated using the 2D Tin+1CnTx class of material from the 2D MXene family. The 2D pristine MXene sensor was also surface functionalized with the trimethoxy(propyl)silane (TMPS) which was subjected to gas sensing measurements. Both the pristine MXene sensor and the TMPS MXene sensor showed excellent gas sensing performance. They exhibited good response, response rate and fast recovery times. Compared to the pristine MXene sensor, the surface functionalized TMPS MXene sensor performed well and had the highest response, response rate and faster recovery time.