The Possibility of Selective Adsorption and Sensing of the Noble Gaseous Species by the C20 Fullerene, the Graphene Sheets, and the N4B4 Cluster

Abstract

There are only a handful reports about the sensor systems having the ability of detecting the existence of the noble gases. Chemical reluctance of these gaseous species causes them to have no chemical interactions like hydrogen bonding with the chemically designed nano-sized sensors. Noble gasses usually have no atomic charges nor do change the total polarity of the molecular sensor systems. These conditions might be more strongly observed for the cases of the lighter noble gases like helium. These properties impede designing molecular sensors for detecting the existence of the noble gasses. <br />Due to these, in this project, we have tried to examine the ability of N4B4 cluster, C20 fullerene, and the graphene segment as especial nano-sized systems in adsorbing and detecting the existence of some noble gasses, by changing their electrical conductivity. The results showed that the N4B4 cluster could sense the existence of the noble gases, better and more selective than the C20 fullerene, or the graphene segment.