Novel techniques for performance enhancement of inkjet-printed graphene-based thin films for wireless sensing platforms

In this paper, we present various novel techniques for the performance enhancement of nanotechnology-enabled wireless platforms utilizing inkjet-printed carbon-based thin films, especially for gas sensing applications. The key advancements include surface modification techniques to drastically reduce film thickness (from micron to nm) and a unique in-house developed nano-patterning process to increase porosity of the thin film resulting in increased surface contact area with gas. We have improved the performance by nearly one order of magnitude (a factor of around 10), increasing the sensitivity to 4.8% at 60 ppm, compared to previously reported results (6% sensitivity after exposure to 500 ppm NH
₃
). We also propose a novel technique for carbon-based material growth on top of pre-printed patterns. The proposed graphene-based thin film approach could set the foundation for a plethora of novel wireless sensing and gas-reconfigurable communication platforms.