Mechanistic Insights into Gas Adsorption on 2D Materials

Owing to their exceptional characteristics, such as one-atom thickness, high specific surface area, and tunability of surfaces, 2D materials are excellent templates to study the surface-dependent gas adsorption phenomenon. Moreover, the properties of 2D materials like morphology, bandgap, structure, and carrier mobility can be modulated easily by modification methods such as functionalization, defect and doping engineering. These modifications create and activate unconventional inert and active sites, leading to the selective adsorption of gases via mechanisms such as charge transfer kinetics, Schottky-barrier modification, and surface interactions. These methods enhance the adsorption sites by adding covalent and non-covalent moieties to the 2D surface and play a critical role in developing ultrafast gas sensing with high sensitivity, selectivity, fast response/recovery rates, and low detection limits. Here, this perspective is presented on the mechanism of the adsorption process of gases on modified 2D surfaces based on recent studies related to adsorption-dependent applications of 2D materials.