Two-Dimensional GaTe as a Promising Candidate for Sensing Gas Insulated Transformer Decomposition Products

Detection of sulfur hexafluoride decomposition products is one of the hopeful ways to diagnose insulation failures in gas-insulated equipment. On account of the outstanding capabilities of two-dimensional materials in the realm of gas sensing, it has become a research hotspot to search for sensitive monolayer materials for monitoring insulating gas status. Motivated by the intriguing properties of group-III monochalcogenides, a unique member is selected here to exploit the application potential in this area. The adsorption behaviors of four typical decomposition gases on monolayer telluride gallium are investigated comprehensively. It is concluded that sulfur dioxide could be selectively adsorbed with a larger order of magnitude of adsorption energy and charge transfer, which is incomparable for the other three gases, and the reason of strong interaction between sulfur dioxide and telluride gallium is revealed by orbital hybridization. Furthermore, biaxial strain is demonstrated an effective modulation approach to achieve higher sensing performance.