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2D material based field effect transistors and
nanoelectromechanical systems for sensing
applications
Shivam Nitin Kajale,1,2 Shubham Yadav,1,2 Yubin Cai,1 Baju Joy,1 and Deblina Sarkar1,*

SUMMARY
Sensors are ubiquitous in modern society because of their wide applications in
healthcare, security, forensic industries as well as environmental protection. Spe-
cifically, sensors which can be microfabricated employing very-large-scale-inte-
gration (VLSI) compatible microfabrication techniques are particularly desirable.
This is because they can provide several advantages: small size, low cost, and pos-
sibility of mass fabrication. 2D materials are a promising building block for such
sensors. Their atomically thin nature, flat surfaces and ability to form van der
Waals hetero junctions opens up the pathway for versatile functionalities.
Here, we review 2D material-based field-effect-transistors (FETs) and nano-elec-
tro-mechanical systems (NEMs) for applications in detecting different gases,
chemicals, and biomolecules. We will provide insights into the unique advantages
of these materials for these sensing applications and discuss the fabrication
methods, detection schemes and performance pertaining to these technologies.
Finally, we will discuss the current challenges and prospects for this field.

INTRODUCTION
With the advent of the 21st century, has risen the paradigm of Internet of Things (IoT) (Atzori et al., 2010),
i.e., weaving the fabric of a smarter and highly responsive world by creating a network of closely interacting
devices, each with a very specific function. The development of fifth generation of cellular networks (Gupta
and Jha, 2015) and advancements in artificial intelligence (McCarthy, 2007) has further propelled the idea of
IoT to encompass all processes involving people, data, and things, to create the Internet of Everything
(Evans, 2012; Weissberger, 2014) (IoE). Cisco, in 2013 estimated a $14.4 trillion value at stake w.r.t. IoE.
And at the heart of these modern age concepts lies the development of a broad range of highly sensitive
and selective, low-power sensory devices. Sensors are an indispensable component of the future of
advanced manufacturing and automation, artificial intelligence, and health technologies. They play a
crucial role toward environment and health safety, by aiding emission monitoring and control.

Another highlight of this century has been the fabrication of 2D materials (Novoselov et al., 2004). With the
tremendous progress made over the last decade in terms of isolating (Huang et al., 2020; Yuan et al., 2016;
Nicolosi et al., 2013; Cai et al., 2018), growing (Jiang et al., 2019; Geng and Yang, 2018; Zhou et al., 2021),
characterizing and stacking 2D materials (Lin et al., 2016; Liu and Hersam, 2018; Novoselov et al., 2016),
discovery of a plethora of interesting properties, they are increasingly being recognized and accepted
as very effective building blocks for the next generation of sensors. 2D materials provide compelling ad-
vantages over their bulk counterparts, like an excellent surface area to volume ratio (which is conspicuously
a major requirement for sensors), mechanical flexibility and easy tunability of electrical properties among
several others. In addition, owing to their larger surface areas, forming electrical contacts for transduction is 1Media Arts and Science,
much easier in 2D films as compared to lower-dimensional entities like nanoribbons. Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, MA
02142, USA
Depending upon the target application, one or more of a sensor’s performance parameters become crit-
2These authors contributed
ical. Sensitivity and limit of detection are two very commonly sought specifications of a sensor. Sensitivity is
equally
commonly defined as the increase in measured response for a unit (or a decade) increase in stimulus, while
*Correspondence:
limit of detection is the smallest amount of target stimulus that can be measured by the sensor with an deblina@mit.edu
acceptable signal to noise ratio. For practical applications, a sensor must also provide a high selectivity https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.
against other stimulants. Mathematically, the selectivity of a sensor for analyte A to analyte B is calculated 2021.103513

iScience 24, 103513, December 17, 2021 ª 2021 The Authors. 1

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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Figure 1. Diverse 2D materials encompassing insulators to superconductors

Eg denotes the bandgap of the corresponding materials. Adapted with permission from (Kang et al., 2014), Copyright ª
2019, SPIE.

as the ratio of its sensitivity for A, to its sensitivity for B. Dynamic range, which indicates the maximum
strength of the stimulus, above the LoD, that the sensor can measure without saturating its output, be-
comes important in applications where the stimulus intensity can vary a lot. Finally, the temporal perfor-
mance of a sensor is quite crucial. It is desirable to have the minimum response time, i.e., the time taken
to produce a stable output after being stimulated, and a small recovery time, i.e., the time taken for the
sensor output to reach the original level after the stimulus is removed. In recent years, several demonstra-
tions have surfaced as to how 2D materials can be used to improve upon one or more of these performance
metrics of sensory devices.

In this review paper, we will first provide a brief introduction to 2D materials and their fabrication processes.
Following that, we will discuss the two major categories of sensors based on 2D materials – namely, field
effect transistors (FET) and nanoelectromechanical sensors (NEMS). We will provide brief insights into the
fabrication and working principles of such devices and highlight their advantages over alternate technol-
ogies. To emphasize this, we will discuss several examples of 2D material-based FET and NEMS sensors
built for gas, chemical, and biomolecule sensing. Apart from these, applications of 2D materials have
also been explored in photodetection platforms, details of which can be found elsewhere (Koppens
et al., 2014; Long et al., 2019). Finally, we will discuss the current challenges facing these devices and pros-
pects for development in the future.

INTRODUCTION TO 2D MATERIALS
2D materials (Figure 1) are exciting as their properties differ from their bulk counterparts in interesting ways such
as having ultra-high conductivity, Young’s modulus, mobility, high temperature, and coefficients, etc. Further,
many of these materials have features which are completely unique from their bulk counterparts such as piezo-
electricity and multiferroicity. These materials with their unique features open an array of applications including
sensing, energy harvesting, and flexible electronics to name a few. For example - graphene’s high mobility and
low band gap has been utilized to fabricate ultra-fast interconnects whereas MoS2’s layer-dependent band-gap
has been utilized in making ultra-low power transistors. Similarly, MoS2’s piezoelectricity has been instrumental
in the development of the field of piezoelectricity based 2D NEMS.

Broadly, 2D materials can be fabricated either via mechanical exfoliation from bulk materials or by using growth
techniques such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), and molecular beam
epitaxy (MBE). Mechanical exfoliation process involves peeling off the bulk material layer by layer. The resistance
offered by the material is commonly the weak, van der Waals force between the adjacent layers. To overcome
these forces, one can either apply normal or lateral force while peeling off the individual layers. One of the com-
mon examples is peeling off the graphite layer using scotch tape to obtain monolayer graphene (Novoselov
et al., 2004). On the other hand, CVD is a deposition method which involves chemical reactions between a ma-
terial or the compound to be deposited and other gases to result in a thin film deposited on the substrate. One of

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the main features of CVD is that it is a multi-directional deposition method unlike other processes such as PVD
and can be used to deposit films which can be monocrystalline, polycrystalline, or even amorphous and epitaxial.
PVD is a process in which material being deposited undergoes multiple phase transformations – sequentially
from condensed phase to vapor phase and then again to a condensed phase and may involve some structural
changes while being deposited as a thin film. Common sources of PVD are sputtering and evaporation. Molec-
ular beam epitaxy is a process in which materials can be grown epitaxially – that is, single layer at a time. This pro-
cess results in the highest purity material growth among techniques discussed so far but requires a cleaner envi-
ronment and ultra-high vacuum for material growth. The details on fabricating individual materials can be found
elsewhere (Cao et al., 2013; Choi et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2012, 2015).

PRINCIPLES OF 2D SENSORS AND ADVANTAGE OF 2D MATERIALS

Although, several mechanisms like calorimetric sensing, optical sensing, and electrochemical sensing are
being explored, electrically transduced sensors exhibit several advantages including non-line-of-sight
detection, possibility of wireless sensing and direct compatibility with an abundance of existing electronic
equipment for signal processing and transmission.

2D material-based FETs
2D films play the role of an active material in such electrical sensors, as their electrical conductivities can
show a clear response to presence of analytes. Graphene and its derivatives, phosphorene, and transi-
tion metal dichalcogenides are among the most explored 2D materials in sensing applications. The
sp2 hybridized honey-comb lattice of graphene provides a cloud of p-electrons on its surfaces. These
p-electrons can facilitate binding with analytes through charge transfer, van der Waals forces or p-p in-
teractions. Graphene oxide, a derivative of graphene, has also been explored in several sensing appli-
cations, owing to simpler liquid phase exfoliation from graphite oxide, and the affinity to metal ions
because of its negative surface charge. Phosphorene, although easily degraded in air, has been stabi-
lized for applications in sensing (especially humidity), where it can interact with analytes through charge
transfer from the pz-orbitals of P atoms. Similarly, charge transfer from p-orbitals of chalcogens in TMDs
facilitates adsorption of analytes on their surfaces. Presence of defects in TMD surfaces have also been
seen to drive the adsorption processes in certain scenarios. The spectrum of target analytes can be
greatly enhanced by functionalizing the 2D material, because they allow a very orderly arrangement of
linkers on their surfaces.

Once the 2D materials adsorbs the analyte, it undergoes a change in one or more its electrical properties like
conductivity, permittivity, or work function. Quite often, the interaction between the analyte and the adsor-
bent has a doping effect on the adsorbent 2D film. The doping induced can either be p-type or n-type de-
pending upon the relative energy levels of the analyte and the sensory material. Variations in doping, which
translates to changes in carrier densities directly affects the conductivity of the 2D adsorbent, which can be
probed in the form of a current or resistance change. In the case of semiconductor 2D materials, changes in
doping can alter the Fermi level and work function of the material, which changes the Schottky barrier height
between the semiconductor and the metal electrodes. This change once again translates to the change in
overall conductivity of the device. Several device architectures are being explored toward electrical sensing
using 2D materials, like chemiresistors, chemical capacitors, chemical diodes, and field-effect transistors
(FETs). Among these, the FET implementations are particularly interesting as they can be thought of as easily
integrable with the existing semiconductor manufacturing technologies. In addition, the gate terminal in
FET designs provides an extra knob for controlling the carrier mobilities, which helps them achieve a higher
sensitivity compared to other device families.

2D material based NEMS

As hinted before, 2D materials have features like high Young’s modulus and temperature coefficients,
large surface area, high thermal conductivity, ultra-low weight, etc. These features have led to the
development of NEMS devices which now offers features such as large frequency-tuning, and
atomic-level sensitivity. Because 2D materials can withstand extremely high strains, we can achieve a
wide range in frequency tuning. When the NEMS are fabricated with a gate configuration, the tension
in the beam (2D material itself) can be modified electrostatically which has been shown to result in a
frequency tuning of more than 400% (Chen et al., 2009). This gate bias-based tuning can be understood
using a simplified model involving 3 forces – built-in strain, strain because of deformation and the

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electrostatic attraction to the gate. Thus, using this configuration, one can not only design a device with
high frequency tuning but can make devices which may require high frequency operation, or even a
high-quality factor. Further, the built-in electric field in the materials can be tuned during the fabrica-
tion process giving us an extra degree of freedom in terms of design parameters.

For NEMS based sensors, damping is an important parameter which is crucial for sensing applications.
Damping for mechanical resonators is quantified by quality factor, Q which is defined as Q = 2pE/dE, where
E is the average energy stored in the resonator over the time-period, and dE is the energy dissipated to the
environment during one cycle. Typically, on scaling down the system, its resonant frequency shoots up, but
the quality factor degrades which is ideally not desirable. Si–NEMS have Q = 103 at room temperature
(Chen et al., 2009; Zhang et al., 2017).

Typically, frequency-Q product is often cited as the figure of merit (FOM) when comparing different reso-
nators. For smaller bulk Si-based flexural mode resonators, the FOM is of the order of 1011. On the other
hand, carbon-based 2D resonators have a FOM exceeding 3 3 1013. Thus, 2D material based NEMS may be
able to exceed Si and other materials in combining high frequency, quality factor, as well as force sensitivity
(Kaur et al., 2016; Li and Östling, 2015).

Another important feature to look at is the mechanical linearity of the sensor as it becomes
important when we start scaling down the NEMS devices. Therefore, it is important to characterize
and understand nonlinearity in NEMS. At large vibration amplitudes, two additional higher order
terms become significant in the equation of motion for NEMS. The first one is the nonlinear restoring
force

F =
k dz
aðdzÞ3 (Equation 1)
where a is the nonlinear spring constant. The other nonlinear term appears as a combination of displace-
ment d z and velocity z_ : hðdzÞ2 z_ . Because this term is proportional to the velocity, it can be related to
‘‘frictional damping’’, and h is the damping coefficient. However, these two effects can be reduced for
2D material based NEMS as illustrated by Eichler et al. (Eichler et al., 2011). They were able to achieve
the highest quality factor to date for a graphene resonator by careful adjustments in driving power, while
avoiding nonlinear damping in the sensor.

DEVICE FABRICATION AND DETECTION TECHNIQUES

2D material-based FETs
2D material-based FETs comprise of a metallic gate, a semiconducting channel created using the 2D ma-
terial, which is separated from the gate by a gate dielectric, and the source and drain electrodes. The
charge current flowing across the source-drain can be modulated by controlling the gate bias voltage,
which results in modulation of conductivity of the channel region. When the target analyte is adsorbed
on the 2D material, it undergoes changes in its intrinsic electrical properties such as fermi level, carrier
density, and conductivity. This can be detected by electrical characterization techniques such as IV mea-
surements, CV measurements, Hall Effect, etc. An interesting artifact of 2D FETs is the Schottky contact
created between the metallic electrodes and the 2D material, as 2D materials cannot be doped easily to
achieve ohmic contacts. Another important feature of 2D FETs is the back-gated configuration as it is
easy to fabricate but has its drawbacks in terms of high parasitic capacitance and requires high operating
voltages.

Once these devices are fabricated, the next step is to characterize them. The two most common
measurements performed on a FET are the transfer characteristics and the output characteristics.
Transfer characteristics is the variation of source-drain current (IDS) with gate bias voltage (VGS),
while the source-drain bias (VDS) is kept constant, while output characteristics measure the variation
of IDS with VDS, for a constant VGS. In addition, characterization of the 2D material itself, in terms
of its carrier density, mobility, conductivity, and contact resistance with the drain and source are
needed to fully study a 2D material-based FET. Two-point probe or four-point probe techniques are
employed to characterize the sheet or contact resistance in these structures. Hall effect measurements
are used to estimate the carrier density in the 2D channel before and after adsorption of the analyte.
More details regarding characterization of 2D FETs are discussed elsewhere in the literature (Mitta
et al., 2021).

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2D material based NEMS

2D materials can be fabricated in several ways including mechanical exfoliation, CVD, PVD, and epitaxial
growth, as discussed earlier in the text. Common configuration for NEMS made from 2D materials usually
involves a sheet of 2D material released from the substrate and supported using two electrodes on the
ends to measure the property of interest such as changes in resonance frequency, conductivity, strain,
etc. This configuration is called trench-based NEMS and can be fabricated in either of the two ways – first
trenches are created and then the material is transferred onto it, or the material is transferred onto the sub-
strate, followed by the creation of trenches.

The first approach seems inefficient as one needs to fabricate a large number of trenches along with the
patterned electrodes and then hoping to transfer the exfoliated material on top of each trench is rather
difficult. Thus, this approach suffers from low yield and finding good devices is rather tiresome. However,
the major advantage of this process is no further processing steps which can result in high performance. On
the other hand, the second approach to fabricating these structures is to grow 2D materials onto a blank
substrate using techniques such as CVD, followed by patterning of electrodes and then finally releasing off
the structure by techniques such as wet/dry etching. This approach involves custom-designed electrodes
corresponding to each flake and is inherently slow. However, it has a very high yield and allows patterning
the devices into specific dimensions using additional lithography steps. In addition, this method allows
users to fabricate high-aspect ratio structures (sub-micron in width with spacing as low as 100-nm from
the gate).

For NEMS, we need some actuation and detection techniques which can sense and reflect the motion of
the beams with high resolution. Typically, optical and electrical modes are used to detect the motion of
the 2D materials.

Optical detection
In optical detection, typically a high-energy laser is focused on the 2D material and is modulated to cause
motion in the suspended beam owing to the temperature changes, and thus initiates a periodic contrac-
tion/expansion of the material leading to an oscillatory motion. Simultaneously, another low-energy laser
beam is used for detection using the interference patterns formed because of the light getting reflected
from the suspended beam and from the light passing through the beam but getting reflected from the sub-
strate underneath it. Thus, motion of the cantilever is detected by tracking the intensity modulation of the
reflected signal. Apart from using this interference technique, the motion can be detected by using an AFM
probe to measure the cantilever’s motion. Here, the drive signal applied to the gate is amplitude modu-
lated (AM), with the modulation frequency fmod set to the resonant frequency of the AFM cantilever. This
in turn provides a drive to the AFM cantilever at fmod because of the interaction between the cantilever
and the 2D material (not shown here). This technique can be used to image the resonance spatially, to
map out the oscillation mode shape. However, resonant quality factors of this setup are quite low, because
the AFM imaging is typically carried out in air.

Electrical detection
As discussed earlier, for this structure the 2D material is suspended across the Source/Drain (the 2 elec-
trodes) and above the gate electrode. Further, a DC bias is applied to the gate to cause a static deflection
of the sheet because of the charge induction phenomena and leads to changes in capacitance between the
gate and the sheet. To drive the sheet at resonance, an additional RF signal d Vg is applied to the gate which
leads to an RF force dF = C0g Vg dVg . This driving scheme can then be used either in conjunction with elec-
trical or optical readout.

Using semiconducting materials (like MoS2, graphene) for NEMS applications has its distinct advantage
as their charge-dependent conductance G can be used to transduce mechanical motion to a time-varying
current. Similarly, source–drain current generated during the deflection of the sheet is usually large enough
to be detected via electrical readout. The S/D current as a function of deflection of the sheet can be ex-
pressed as –
0
dId dG Cg
= Vd Vg (Equation 2)
dz dVg Cg

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dG
For materials such as graphene, dV g
can be very large (because of its high mobility), leading to a current that
is orders of magnitude larger than for a device having similar dimensions but made from a material lacking
similar transconductance.

However, in this configuration with a global ground, the parasitic capacitance between the gate and the
bonding pads tends to be very large and can lead to a large RF signal noise that makes the mechanical
motion (translated into S/D current) hard to detect. To improve this signal-to-noise ratio, a two-source
frequency mixing technique is used to downmix the RF mechanical signal to a much lower frequency
(kHz). Briefly, an RF voltage at frequency f is applied to the gate for drive, resulting in a time-varying
conductance of the material at f. A second RF voltage at f + Df is then applied to the drain, with Df typi-
cally in the kilohertz range. This frequency mixing leads to having a drain current ID that has components
at both 2f + Df and Df in the frequency domain. The component at Df is then tracked by lock-in
techniques, avoiding direct pickup of the RF capacitive background. The magnitude of this current is
given as –
 
dG C0g
I2
source
d = dVd dVg + Vg dz (Equation 3)
dVg Cg
There are a few other variations in mixing techniques such as single source Amplitude modulation (Van Der
Zande et al., 2010) and Frequency modulation (Gouttenoire et al., 2010). Although these mixing techniques
are quite effective for device characterization, they do suffer from a few limitations. Mixing the mechanical
signal down from the megahertz to the kilohertz regime can be done only by reducing the measurement
bandwidth, which in turn seriously impedes real-time applications such as high-speed detection and me-
chanical signal processing. To overcome these limitations, techniques like direct RF readout (Xu et al.,
2010) have also been developed with much lower RF signal noise and higher speed. To increase the detec-
tion speed further, Song et al.(Song et al., 2012) have demonstrated measurements with local gates
coupled to an LC circuit; however, this requires optimization in terms of impedance matching which re-
quires further exploration.

SENSING APPLICATIONS
2D material-based sensors have found applications in all sorts of sensing areas. The basic principles behind
the working of these sensors include detecting changes in the material because of temperature, strain, and
effective mass changes and modulation of the electrical properties because of adsorption of gases, bio-
molecules, chemicals, ions, etc. on the material surface. Here we will discuss each of these applications
in slightly more detail with examples taken from latest research articles.

Gas sensing
Growing environmental concerns, air pollution and climate change make it all-the-more necessary to
develop scalable, selective, and highly sensitive gas sensors. Detection of toxic gas levels in ambient
air is also crucial from the standpoint of health and safety. Thus, several research groups in recent years
have explored the use of 2D material-based sensors toward this end. 2D FET gas sensors operate primar-
ily on the principle of physical adsorption of target gas molecules on the 2D material, which affects the
charge density in the channel. If the Fermi energy of the 2D channel material lies above (below) the
lowest (highest) occupied molecular orbital of the analyte gas molecule, electron density will transfer
from the channel (gas molecule) to the gas molecule (channel). NO2 and NH3 which are arguably the
most targeted gases in the field, are also representative of these two groups of gases: NO2 having an
oxidizing effect owing to interactions from the electronegative oxygen atoms, whereas NH3 showing a
reductive behavior by sharing the lone-pair electron density on the N-atom. Density functional theory
has been used to calculate the interaction energy and charge transfer between various combinations
of gaseous analytes and 2D materials(Azouvi, 1984; Caballero et al., 2011; Huang et al., 2008; Khodadadi,
2018; Wang et al., 2016).

NO2 is indirectly responsible for the greenhouse effect, and acidification, and eutrophication. It is also
known to aggravate asthma and even lead to cardiovascular fatalities. Ammonia, on the other hand, is
categorized as highly toxic, with a 300-ppm exposure deemed immediately dangerous to life
and health by the OSHA. Paul et al.(Paul et al., 2012) have demonstrated the use of the graphene
nano-meshes, created using nanosphere lithography and reactive ion etching, in building gas

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Figure 2. Applications in gas sensing

(A) SEM image of a 200 nm wide suspended graphene nanoribbon (top-left) and a schematic of the same device (top-right). Middle and bottom panel:
Resonant response for the device before exposure, after first exposure, annealing and second exposure (left to right). Reproduced with permission from
(Chen et al., 2009). Copyright ª 2009, Springer Nature
(B) Schematic of the MoS2-FET with channel functionalized with nanoparticles (top-left) and an AFM image of an actual device (top-right). Bottom panel:
Change in drain current on exposure to H2 at t = 20mins for a device without (left) and without (right) channel functionalized with Pd-NPs. Reproduced with
permission from (Sarkar et al., 2015). Copyright ª 2015, American Chemical Society.
(C) Real-time changes in conductance of the MoS2 FET on exposure to NO2 (left) and NH3 (right) Inset: Zoomed-in response to lower concentrations of
ammonia, i.e., 1, 5 and 10 ppm. Reproduced with permission from (Liu et al., 2014). Copyright ª 2014, American Chemical Society.

sensors. Using their ethanol-based graphene nanomesh sensors, they have been able to achieve a
sensitivity of 4.32%/ppm (0.71%/ppm) and a detection limit of 15 ppb (160 ppb) for NO2 (NH3). Feng
et al. have reported a systematic study on the effect of gate bias on the sensitivity and recovery rate
of n-type and p-type MoTe2-based FET sensors for NO2 and NH3 (Feng et al., 2017). By optimizing
the gate potential, they were able to achieve full recovery of the MoTe2 surface under 10 min, the re-
covery rate being higher for NH3 than NO2 as explained by the lower binding energy between NH3 and
MoTe2.

Phosphorene, which behaves like a p-type channel in FETs, has been used to detect NO2 with limit of
detection down to 20 ppb (S. Cui et al., 2015) and 5 ppb (Abbas et al., 2015). The conductivity of the p-
type channel increases when NO2 adsorption leads to negative charge transfer from the channel. In a
recent demonstration, Kim et al. found that modifying graphene surface with polystyrene brushes, with di-
methylchlorosilane terminal groups resulted in a 5.3 times improvement in the FET’s response to NO2 as
compared to a bare graphene FET, while also achieving faster response and recovery times (Kim et al.,
2020). Zong et al. explored the use of 1T-2H heterophase MoS2 in 2D FETs and achieved a sensitivity of
25% to 2ppm NO2 and a detection limit of 25ppb (Zong et al., 2020).

In an interesting demonstration, Liu and group (Liu et al., 2014) have shown how MoS2 transistors (Fig-
ure 2C) with Schottky contacts can be used to achieve detection of NO2 and NH3 accompanied by a 2–3
orders of magnitude change in channel current. It is observed the adsorption of analyte not only mod-
ulates the conductivity of the channel, but also changes the Schottky barrier level, which helps enhance
the device sensitivity. He and group have built flexible thin-film transistors off 2D material solutions(He
et al., 2012). Reduced graphene oxide derived from spin-coated graphene oxide are patterned into the
source and drain, while a spin-coated suspension of MoS2 monolayers is patterned into the channel.

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Further, the channel was functionalized with Pt-nanoparticles which improved the limit of detection to 2
ppb with SNR of 3.

Zhang et al. have developed graphene-FETs for H2 sensing, where the channel is decorated with SnO2
nanoparticles (Zhang et al., 2015). The high sensitivity, and the fast response and recovery time (<2s) is
attributed to the improved carrier mobility because of charge transfer from the graphene channel and
the low energy barrier between SnO2 NPs and graphene. In a similar attempt, Sarkar et al. have developed
MoS2-based FET with the channel functionalized with Pd-nanoparticles for hydrogen gas sensing (Sarkar
et al., 2015), as depicted in Figure 2B. This resulted in an improvement in sensitivity (ratio of change in cur-
rent to initial current) from 1 (Miremadi et al., 1996) to 5 was observed for a 3 ppm H2 concentration.

On the flip side, when building NEMS devices for gas sensing applications, the common technique is to
detect the mass change because of the adsorption of gas particles on the cantilever which leads to a shift
in the resonant frequency. The major challenge for this technology is the sensitivity in detecting these small
changes in mass, which may go undetected if the changes are significantly small (which is usually the case
with bulk-material based NEMS). 2D materials have relatively low mass density and high-quality factors
which contribute to large changes in effective mass and higher sensitivity of the sensor. Thus, the mass
change can easily be detected using either optical or electrical detection techniques as discussed earlier.
In one of these efforts, Chen et al.(Chen et al., 2009) studied the effects of mass loading/unloading on gra-
phene resonators experimentally, by measuring the changes in resonant frequency as a function of applied
gate bias before and after (Figure 2A) deposition of a known amount of mass. They used an electrical
readout mechanism to characterize their NEMS device. In addition, they characterized the negative ther-
mal expansion coefficient of graphene by letting the device cool down and observing upshifts in the reso-
nance. Further, the quality factor also improved with decreasing temperature, to 104 at 5 K. The results
show the promise of graphene to be used as a mass sensing device with a mass sensitivity of 1 zg/Hz0.5.
Similarly, Manoharan et al. (Muruganathan et al., 2018) designed graphene resonators with a top-gated
configuration for mass sensing of Hydrogen and Argon mixture gases. When they allowed the flow of
the gas mixture described above, the changes in resonant frequency and quality factor were noticed which
indicated adsorption of gas molecules onto the resonator surface. Using this device, they were able to
measure at least 15 attogram changes for the optimized pressure level of the system. As an example
of another mass-sensor, Sakhaee-Pour et al. (Sakhaee-Pour et al., 2008) designed a grapheme-based de-
vice which could detect atomistic dust particles with resolutions up to 10
6 fg. They used Single layer gra-
phene sheets as resonators and operated them in the ultra-high frequency range: 1.5 GHz–2.9 THz and
found that the frequency shifts non-linearly with increase in length of the resonators.

Bio sensing
Biosensors, defined as a device that can sense biological signals as the input and generate various readout
signals as the output, have at least two key elements of a biological receptor and a physical-chemical trans-
ducer (Chaplin and Bucke, 1990; Thévenot et al., 2001). To conquer the limitations of sensors based on bulk
materials, one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures such as silicon nanowires (SiNWs) and carbon nanotubes
(CNTs) have been investigated to show a significant improvement on the sensitivity of biosensing. Never-
theless, despite 1D nanostructures’ exceptional merits of high switching properties and large surface area,
they are very expensive to fabricate, and the qualities are often not consistent from device to device (Byon
and Choi, 2006; Cui, 2001; Patolsky et al., 2006; Ramgir et al., 2010). Two-dimensional (2D) materials, on the
other hand, have a more streamline fabrication procedure and yet still excellent electrical and physiochem-
ical properties (Sun et al., 2014; Tan et al., 2017; Tan and Zhang, 2015). Therefore, naturally 2D layered ma-
terials that are biocompatible, such as graphene, have been seen in many FETs and NEMS in the literature.

A number of studies have been demonstrated on 2D graphene-based FET biosensors (Afsahi et al., 2018; Chen
et al., 2010; Kwong Hong Tsang et al., 2019; Ohno et al., 2010a; Ono et al., 2020; Viswanathan et al., 2015; Xu
et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2017; Zhou et al., 2017). Figure 3 shows some representative sensors in prior literature.
Cancer markers and RNAs are often targeted through a wide range of receptor and acceptor schemes in gra-
phene-based FET biosensors (Afsahi et al., 2018; Ohno et al., 2010a; Xu et al., 2017; Yang et al., 2017; Zhou et al.,
2017). For other examples, proteins (Ohno et al., 2010a; Ono et al., 2020) and exosomes (Kwong Hong Tsang
et al., 2019) have been explored for label-free sensing through functionalized graphene-based FET biosensors.
Virus detection through FET biosensors, especially because of the emergence of COVID 19, has drawn a lot of
attention in the scientific community. Seo et al. utilized 1- pyrenebutanoic acid succinimidyl ester as a probe

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Figure 3. Graphene based biomolecule sensing

(A) Schematic diagrams of a flat (left) and a crumpled (right) graphene-based FET DNA sensor. DNA strands stay on the surface of graphene. The crumpled
graphene is more sensitive to the negative charges of DNA than the flat version does.
(B) Fabrication of graphene-based FET biosensors. The PS substrate is annealed to shrink and crumple the graphene.
(C) IV characteristics of the flat and the crumpled graphene-based FET biosensors upon DNA absorption. Reproduced with permission from (Hwang et al.,
2020). Copyright ª 2020, Hwang et al.
(D) Schematic of the functionalized biosensor, showing the different doping levels of the graphene as a result of exosome binding.
(E) Voltage changes of the FET biosensor corresponding to different concentrations of exosome in presence. Reproduced with permission from (Kwong
Hong Tsang et al., 2019). Copyright ª 2019, Kwong et al.

linker to immobile SARS-CoV-2 spike antibody with a detection limit of 1 fg/mL (Seo et al., 2020). 0.2pM detec-
tion limit is also achieved in a graphene-based bio-FET to detect SARS-CoV-2 within two minutes (Zhang et al.,
2020). Graphene, with its large surface area, chemical stability, and high electron transfer rate, has been applied
in a wide range of biosensors. However, graphene-based FET sensors are in general limited in its sensitivity and
limit of detection given graphene’s lack of a band gap (Sarkar et al., 2014).

Apart from graphene, 2D transition metal compounds, primarily transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) and
transition metal oxides (TMOs), have unique morphological and physicochemical properties suitable for
biomolecule sensing through FET biosensors. Figure 4 shows some examples of 2D MoS2-based FET biosen-
sors seen in the literature. The band structure of 2D MoS2 has d-orbital of molybdenum where four electrons

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Figure 4. MoS2 based biomolecule sensing

(A) Schematic diagram of a MoS2-based FET based biosensor. For specifically capturing the target biomolecules, the dielectric layer above the MoS2
channel is functionalized with receptors. The charged biomolecules after being captured induce a gating effect, modulating the device current.
(B and C) MoS2-based FET device, after being functionalized with biotin, shows distinct current change after addition of streptavidin and (C) shows no
change when the device is unfunctionalized demonstrating that there is no false signal. Reproduced with permission from (Sarkar et al., 2014). Copyright ª
2014, American Chemical Society.
(D and E) Schematic of a MoS2-based FET sensor for DNA sensing and (E) fabrication process.
(F) Response curve of different concentrations of chromosome 21 target DNA solutions.
(G) Response-concentration relationship when the gate-source voltage is 0.8V. Reproduced with permission from (Liu et al., 2019). Copyright ª 2019,
American Chemical Society.

from Mo fill the bonding state and the surface layers completed through long pair of electrons (Chhowalla et al.,
2013; Kalantar-zadeh et al., 2015; Splendiani et al., 2010). Monolayer MoS2 has direct bandgap, thanks to d-
orbital hybridization. Therefore, 2D MoS2-based FET biosensors have shown superior ON/OFF ratios of
more than 108 and significantly high sensitivity. In addition, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoflake with its con-
formity and transparency has been utilized for specific detection of biomolecules (Sarkar et al., 2014). Given its
high fluorescent quenching efficiency and attachment schemes to DNAs, MoS2-based biosensing platforms for
DNA and small biomolecules have been presented in multiple publications (Geldert et al., 2017; Loo et al., 2014;
Zhu et al., 2013). In addition to MoS2’s high electrical mobility and transconductance, large valley separation pro-
vides the potential to manipulate the valley and spin in a monolayer of MoS2. However, a critical problem of poor
electric contact limits the development of more optimal MoS2-based sensors. The problem stems from Fermi
level pinning in the interface between the MoS2 and a metal. Several research teams proposed solutions to the
problem through phase engineering, annealing, and selective etching (Baugher et al., 2013; Guimarães et al.,
2016; Kappera et al., 2014; Kwon et al., 2017; Nourbakhsh et al., 2016; Xu et al., 2016; Yu et al., 2018). Further,
field-effect transistors based on graphene-MoS2 van der Waals heterojunctions have shown promising perfor-
mances (X. Cui et al., 2015; Y. Liu et al., 2015). Dongjea et al. have proposed highly electron-doped graphene
contact platform of monolayer MoS2, which shows Fermi alignment and more optimal electric contact than con-
ventional MoS2 based FET devices (Seo et al., 2019). Sensitivity of FET biosensor is defined as the ratio of the
difference in current before and after biomolecule binding to the lower of the two currents. MoS2-based FET
biosensors have demonstrated a sensitivity of 196 in the subthreshold region for streptavidin solution of 100
Fm (Sarkar et al., 2014).

Mass spectrometry using NEMS has been shown to resolve neutral species well, providing a resolving po-
wer that increases with increase in mass, and thus allows the acquisition of spectra, molecule-by-molecule,

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in real time. For detecting biomolecules in real time, Hanay et al. (Hanay et al., 2012). reported the first real-
ization of single-molecule NEMS-based mass spectrometry. In their device, as each molecule was getting
adsorbed on to the resonator surface, its mass and position of adsorption were continuously tracked down
using two driven vibrational modes in the device. For this demonstration of multimode NEMS-based mass
spectrometry in real time, they were analyzing IgM antibody complexes. Briefly, as the IgM started accu-
mulating on the device, they were able to deduce the molecular weights of various isoforms of IgM.
From their investigation, they found that the most common isoform was a tetramer with a molecular weight
of 1.03 MDa which matches with the actual weight with an accuracy of more than 90%. They were able to
successfully calculate the mass changes of 69 events out of 74 instances. Further, they were able to reveal
the sequence of IgM isoforms from trimer to dodecamer with the range of mass they investigated. This
work promises the potential of NEMS based devices which can eventually be employed for detection of
single molecules with a resolution of a few Daltons in the near future.

Chemical sensing
Mercury is a well-known neurotoxin which is mainly exposed to humans through air contaminated by the burning
of fossil fuels, or because of ingestion of fish varieties containing larger amounts of methylmercury. Zhang et al.
demonstrated a 2D FET sensor for Hg2+ contamination in water with a channel composed of monolayer gra-
phene functionalized with 1-Octadecanethiol (Zhang et al., 2010), leveraging the result that thiol groups on hy-
drocarbon chains can readily bind heavy metal ions like Hg2+, Pb2+, etc.(Feng et al., 1997) The binding of Hg2+ to
the channel right-shifts the Dirac point, the effect of which is quite evident in the IDS-VGS curve of the device. A
similar, comparative study conducted by Afsharimani et al. shows that the same scheme, of functionalizing gra-
phene with alkanethiols, is more sensitive to the presence of Pb2+ ions (Dirac shift of 30.2 G 6.8 V) as compared to
Hg2+ (Dirac shift of 7.1 G 4.8 V) (Afsharimani et al., 2018). Both the studies exhibit detection of the analytes at 10
ppm concentration. An alternate approach, where MoS2 few-layers are used as the channel material, showed a
higher selectivity to the detection of mercury ions as compared to other heavy metals like lead and cadmium, with
a detection limit of 30 pM(Jiang et al., 2015). A FET design, which uses DNA functionalized gold nanoparticles
linked to MoS2 few-layers for detection of Hg2+, as shown in Figure 5B, demonstrated a response time of 1–2
s, while achieving a detection limit of 0.1 nM(Zhou et al., 2016). The DNA-based implementation is particularly
interesting, because the selectivity of binding ions can be greatly enhanced by the right choice of DNA sequence.
Wen and group have implemented a sensor for Pb2+ ions in water by functionalizing graphene sheets with Au-NP
– DNAzyme complexes (Wen et al., 2013). An Ag/AgCl electrode suspended in the solution acts as the gate elec-
trode, and the system could detect lead ions down to 20 pM. Nailiang Yin’s group has been exploring the use of
ionophores (Gupta and Agarwal, 2005; McGraw et al., 2008) in 2D FET architectures to detect heavy metal ions. In
one of their works, coating a black-phosphorus (BP) channel with the selectively permeable ionophore layer (Fig-
ure 5C), and achieved two goals: it stabilized the air-sensitive BP by isolating it from the reactive components of
air, and allowed only the ions of interest to reach the channel for binding (Li et al., 2015).. Using ionophore coating
in a MoS2 FET, they could achieve a detection limit as low as 0.1 ppb for arsenite ions(Li et al., 2016).

Apart from heavy metal ions, there has been emphasis on building sensors for non-toxic ions like Na+, K+,
and Ca2+. These ions are omnipresent in the human body and serve vital functionalities like maintaining
fluid balances, forming ion channels for neural impulses, facilitating muscular and cardiac contractions,
etc. However, an imbalance in their blood concentrations can very well prove fatal. Excess potassium levels
in blood are a known cause of cardiac arrests in humans, while several studies have associated sodium con-
centration with increased blood pressure. Li et al. have developed a graphene FET for measuring K+ ion
concentrations (Li et al., 2017). The graphene channel is encapsulated by a spin-coated layer of valinomy-
cin, which facilitates a highly selective detection of K+ ions even in the presence of high concentrations of
Na+ and Ca2+ in the same solution. The authors report a mean sensitivity of 61 mV/decade over a span of
two months, with a 1 m M limit of detection. An implementation of their sensor on the biocompatible poly-
ethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate showed little deviations from the original version, adding more
value to the concept in terms of real-world usage. Yuan et al. found that hydrophilization of the graphene
surface using oxygen plasma treatment improves its binding with G-quadruplex, which in turn enhances the
graphene FET’s selectivity and sensitivity toward K+ ions. They have achieved a detection limit of 0.058pM
and a linear range of 0.1pM to 100nM (Yuan et al., 2019). Use of a graphene FET has also been illustrated in
the sensing of Na+ ions over a concentration range of 1.0 nM to 1.0 mM (Sofue et al., 2011). Sudibya et al.
(Sudibya et al., 2011) made use of the protein calmodulin (CaM) to functionalize the reduced graphene ox-
ide (rGO) channels in their FETs to achieve sensing of calcium ions. The source-drain current showed clear
gradation with varying Ca2+ levels in the electrolyte, which remained insensitive to presence of Na+ or K+

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Figure 5. Applications in chemical sensing

(A) Schematic of the 2D-FET with WS2 channel sensitive to ethanol vapors (top) and a bar graph showing how the sensor gives about a 10 times higher
sensitivity in dark conditions as compared to illuminated. Reproduced with permission from (Huo et al., 2014). Copyright ª 2014, Nengjie Hou et al.
(B) A back-gated MoS2-based FET for Hg2+ sensing. The MoS2 channel is functionalized with AuNP-DNA complexes (left). Changes in drain current with
increasing Hg2+ concentration in the solution. A clear spike becomes visible at 0.1 nM, which is reported as the limit of detection (right). Reproduced with
permission from (Zhou et al., 2016). Copyright ª 2016, American Chemical Society.
(C) Schematic of an air-stable BP-FET, using an ionophore layer selectively permeable to Pb2+ ions (leftmost) and changes in transfer characteristics of the
BP-FET in response to varying levels of Pb2+ ions at VDS = 3V (center) and VDS = 1V. Reproduced with permission from (Li et al., 2015). Copyright ª 2015,
American Chemical Society.

ions because of the high selectivity of CaM. The protein, and hence the sensor does, however, show a
response to the presence of Mg2+ ions in the electrolyte.

Furthermore, 2D FETs have also been shown to achieve remarkable results in pH sensing. Sarkar et al. (Sarkar
et al., 2014) demonstrated a MoS2-based FET, wherein, the protonation (at low pH) and deprotonation (at
high pH) of the OH groups on the gate dielectric leads to creation of the positive and negative surface charge
on the dielectric. The combined effect of this induced surface charge and applied gate bias leads to modulation
of the channel current. These devices exhibited a linear shift in threshold voltage of 59 mV/pH unit, over the pH
range 3-9. In a similar effort, Shadman and group used a double-gated FET configuration with monolayer MoS2
and WSe2 as channel material, and achieved a sensitivity exceeding the theoretical Nerst limit (59.6 mV/pH) in
both the cases (Shadman et al., 2016). They also noted that sensitivity of the devices improved on reducing
the thickness of top-dielectric, while the opposite was true for the bottom-dielectric. Li et al. recently fabricated
a MoS2-monolayer based array FET, which is sensitive to pH solutions volumes as low as 0.1 m L (Li et al., 2021).
Their sensor operates over a pH range of 2.00 to 12.00, while maintaining high stability up to  60 days.

A whole another realm of chemical sensors focuses on the detection of volatile organic compounds (VOCs),
which are known to exhibit a high vapor pressure at room temperature. Exposure to VOCs can have health
effects ranging from minor headaches and irritation to even fatalities. Acetone is a commonly used chem-
ical in wet labs, and inhaling its vapors is often associated with headaches and nausea. Kehayias and group
have shown that rGO FETs can be used as sensors for acetone vapors in the air (Kehayias et al., 2013).
Detection has been demonstrated for 200 ppm of acetone, with a proof of reversibility on exposure to

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acetone-free air. Kulkarni and group have taken a unique approach to detection of VOCs by employing the
heterodyne mechanism in their graphene FET (Kulkarni et al., 2014). The sensing is based on the oscillation
of polar molecules adsorbed on the graphene channel when a high frequency voltage excitation is applied
across the channel. The involvement of high frequencies enables them to achieve a very quick response
time of  0.1 s while being sensitive down to  1ppb of several VOCs like chloroform, chlorobenzene,
acetone, etc. Another study demonstrated the use of MoS2 based FETs for detecting chemical vapors of
methanol, exposure to which can cause blindness in individuals. Apart from observing analyte induced
changes in IDS of the device, the authors suggest the use of signatures in low-frequency noise spectral den-
sity of output current and transient time, as additional indicators to improve selectivity in sensing (Samna-
kay et al., 2015). Nengjie Huo and team have developed a FET with a WS2 channel (Figure 5A) and shown its
application in sensing ethanol vapors in the air (Huo et al., 2014). An interesting observation they report is
that the sensitivity (defined as [IDS,ethanol – IDS,vacuum]/IDS,vacuum) of the device is about ten times higher
when it is in the dark, as compared to when it is illuminated by white light. Recently, Zulkelfi et al.
conducted similar experiments with ReS2-FETs. ReS2 being a direct bandgap semiconductor even in multi-
layer systems allowed the FETs to achieve tuneable selectivity to different components of a VOCs mixture
based on illumination wavelength and applied gate bias (Zulkefli et al., 2021). Chen et al. have come up with
a graphene FET for ethanol sensing, containing microchannels patterned into SU-8 (Chen et al., 2012). Ti/Pt
electrodes are patterned (using lift-off) on top of the SU-8 channel walls, while a separate Si/SiO2/graphene
stack sits on top of the electrodes. This architecture avoids any possible contamination of the graphene
channel associated with in-situ lithography.

In NEMS-based devices, adsorption leads to induced surface stress which can be measured by cantilever’s
flexural deflection. This method is also known as ‘‘Stoney’s Formula’’ which provides the relationship be-
tween the surface stress and flexural deflection (Ibach, 1997). This detection-principle based on Stoney’s
Formula can be used to detect specific ions. For this, 2D materials are functionalized using specific chem-
icals which will allow the binding of other chemicals onto the surface of the resonators and depending on
the sensitivity of the device, a very small concentration of these molecules can be detected. As an example,
Peng Li et al. (Li et al., 2018) integrated Black Phosphorus into their NEMS sensor which led to higher sensi-
tivity and label free detection of ions in water. The integration of BP in the device enabled them to detect
Hg+2 ions with a concentration as low as 1ug/L. This device can also be used to detect trace amounts of
several ions such as Hg+2, Cd+2, Pb+2, and Na+ simultaneously. Later on, they came up with another sensing
device which was integrated with MoS2 to expand their detecting abilities to not only the above ions in wa-
ter but also in human sweat samples (Li et al., 2019). With this device, they had a detection limit of 5ng/mL
for Cd+2 and 50 ug/mL for Hg+2 ions. These devices can be useful for applications such as wearable/flexible
sensing devices.

Table 1. 2D material based NEMS and FET sensors

2D material Response
Analyte 2D material thickness Architecture Sensitivity LoD time Ref.
Acetone rGO 20-50 nm FET – 200 ppm 10s of sec (Kehayias et al.,
2013)
Acetone Graphene Monolayer FET – 1 ppb 0.1 s (Kulkarni et al.,
2014)
Acetone ReS2 8 ML FET 4.3%/ppm – – (Zulkefli et al., 2021)
Amyl butyrate Graphene FET 10 – – (Park et al.,
2012)
AsO2- Phosphorene <50 nm FET – 10 ppb 5s (Li et al., 2015)
AsO2- MoS2 <20 nm FET – 0.1 ppb 100–210 s (Li et al., 2016)
BSA protein Graphene Monolayer FET 0.363 – (Ohno et al.,
2009)
Ca2+ rGO 2-4 ML FET – 1mM – (Sudibya et al.,
2011)
Cd2+ Phosphorene <50 nm FET – 3 ppb 5s (Li et al., 2015)

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Table 1. Continued
2D material Response
Analyte 2D material thickness Architecture Sensitivity LoD time Ref.
Cd2+ rGO 2-4 ML FET – 1 nM – (Sudibya et al.,
2011)
Cd2+, Pb2+, Na+ BP 47 nm NEMS 0.25 1mg/L 4s (Li et al., 2018)
Cd2+ MoS2 <80 nm NEMS 0.24 5ng/mL 8s (Li et al., 2019)
Chlorobenzene Graphene Monolayer FET – 1 ppb 0.1 s (Kulkarni et al.,
2014)
Chloroform Graphene Monolayer FET – 1 ppb 0.1 s (Kulkarni et al.,
2014)
Dopamine rGO 1-3 nm FET 0.75 1mM – (He et al., 2010)
DNA Graphene Monolayer FET 15 48nM – (Dong et al.,
2010)
DNA rGO – Pt-NPs 1-3 nm FET 2 – – (Yin et al., 2012)
DNA MoS2 Monolayer FET – 1fM 400 s (Liu et al., 2019)
Ethanol WS2 42 nm FET – – <20 ms (Huo et al.,
2014)
Ethanol Graphene FET – – 5 min (Chen et al.,
2012)
H+ MoS2 2 nm FET 59 mV/pH pH 3-9 – (Sarkar et al.,
2014)
H+ MoS2, WSe2 Monolayer FET >59.6 mV/pH pH 4-6 – (Shadman
et al., 2016)
H+ MoS2 Monolayer FET Upto 293.03 pH 2-12 – (Li et al., 2021)
k U/pH
H2 Graphene – Monolayer FET – 1 ppm 1.2 s (Zhang et al.,
SnO2-NP 2015)
H2 MoS2 – Pd-NP 8 nm FET 500%/3 ppm 3 ppm – (Sarkar et al.,
2015)
H2, Ar Graphene Monolayer NEMS – 15 ag – (Sakhaee-Pour
et al., 2008)
H 2O 2 MoS2 FET – 100nM – (Zheng et al.,
2019)
Hg2+ Graphene Monolayer FET – 10 ppm – (Zhang et al.,
2010)
Hg2+ Graphene Monolayer FET – 10 ppm – (Afsharimani
et al., 2018)
Hg2+ MoS2 FET – 30 pM – (Jiang et al., 2015)
Hg2+ MoS2 – DNA – 10 nm FET 6.77%/10nM 0.1 nM 1-2 s (Zhou et al., 2016)
Au-NP
Hg2+ Phosphorene <50nm FET – 1 ppb 5s (Li et al., 2015)
Hg2+ BP 47nm NEMS 0.33 1ug/L 4s (Li et al., 2018)
2+
Hg MoS2 <80nm NEMS 0.37 50ng/mL 8s (Li et al., 2019)
HIV Graphene Monolayer FET – 1 pM – (Kwon et al., 2013)
IgE Graphene Monolayer FET 0.436 – – (Ohno et al., 2010b)
89
IgM Graphene 5 nm NEMS 1 MDa – 10 s
nanoplatelet
K+ Graphene Monolayer FET 61mV/decade 1mM 7.1 s (Li et al., 2017)
K+ Graphene Monolayer FET – 0.058pM – (Yuan et al., 2019)

(Continued on next page)

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Table 1. Continued
2D material Response
Analyte 2D material thickness Architecture Sensitivity LoD time Ref.
Methanol MoS2 2-3 ML FET – – (Samnakay et al., 2015)
Na+ Graphene Monolayer FET – 1 nM – (Sofue et al., 2011)
NH3 Graphene Monolayer FET 0.71%/ppm 160 ppb 5-7 min (Paul et al., 2012)
NH3 MoTe2 6.5 nm FET 2.76%/ppm 1 ppm 10 min (Feng et al., 2017)
NH3 MoS2 Monolayer FET 40%/ppm 1 ppm 5-9 min (Liu et al., 2014)
NO2 Graphene Monolayer FET 4.32%/ppm 15 ppb – (Paul et al., 2012)
NO2 MoTe2 6.5 nm FET 1.15%/ppb 12 ppb 10 min (Feng et al., 2017)
NO2 Phosphorene 4.8 nm FET – 20 ppb – (S. Cui et al., 2015)
NO2 Phosphorene 55 nm FET – 5 ppb 130-840 s (Abbas et al., 2015)
NO2 MoS2 Monolayer FET 20%/20ppb 20 ppb 5-9 min (Liu et al., 2014)
NO2 MoS2 – Pt-NP 2-18 nm FET – 2 ppb 30 min (He et al., 2012)
NO2 Graphene-PS FET 45.1%/ 4.8 ppb 150 s (Kim et al., 2020)
50ppm
NO2 1T-2H MoS2 Monolayer FET 25%/2ppm 25ppb 10 s (Zong et al., 2020)
Nonvirus Graphene FET – 0.1ug/ – (Xiang et al., 2016)
ml
Pb2+ Graphene Monolayer FET – 10 ppm – (Afsharimani et al., 2018)
Pb2+ Graphene–AuNP- 2-3 ML FET – 20 pM – (Wen et al., 2013)
DNAzyme
Pentacene Graphene Monolayer NEMS 2 zg/Hz0.5 – 0.3 s (Chen et al., 2009)
PSA MoS2 80 nm FET – 1 pg/mL – (Lee et al., 2015)
SARS-CoV-2 Graphene FET – 1 fg/mL – (Seo et al., 2020)
SARS-CoV-2 Graphene Monolayer FET – 0.2pM 2 min (Zhang et al., 2020)
Streptavidin MoS2 4 ML FET 196 1fM – (Sarkar et al., 2014)

CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

Looking forward, there is great potential in terms of improving the performance of this family of devices, and in
exploring new 2D materials in the devices. Accurate theoretical models for quantitatively predicting and explain-
ing the interaction between 2D materials or their derivatives with analyte molecules still remains elusive. Several
studies have been able to achieve remarkable limits of detection for their target analytes. To really cater to real-
world applications, there must also be an emphasis on improving selectivity toward target analytes, through tar-
geted material engineering or functionalization. Systematic efforts are needed for operating sensory devices
with high specificity in biological fluids like whole blood, saliva, and urine for point of care applications. This
can be achieved by exploring strategies to include sample preprocessing steps within a single lab-on-chip (Lak-
sanasopin et al., 2015). Operation of charge sensing based devices in ionic media of relevant concentration
ranges is hindered by Debye screening, that is the formation of an electrical double layer at a charged surface
(of an analyte in our case) because of attraction of counterions from the medium. This issue can be approached
by smart functionalization to bring target molecules physically closer to the sensory surface as well as using
dipole based detection with high frequency electric field (Kulkarni and Zhong, 2012). A major area where efforts
can be focused is in improving the response and recovery times of the sensors, and so achieving repeatability in
sensing. Emphasis can be laid on building devices suitable for mass production, by exploring the use of CVD
grown 2D materials instead of exfoliated flakes. Graphene and MoS2 have been the most studied materials in
sensing applications, but there exists an abundance of new 2D materials with intriguing new properties like
piezoelectricity, room temperature magnetism, multiferroicity, etc., which are yet to be systematically studied
in sensing applications. In a parallel realm, the rich physics presented by 2D material based heterostructures
have caught the imagination of the scientific community, and the use of such heterostructures in sensing appli-
cations remains an unchartered territory. Finally, a unified code for reporting the performance metrics of these
sensors needs to be established and followed, which could include certain fundamental specifications like
limit of detection, sensitivity, dynamic range, response and recovery times, and selectivity against similar and

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co-occurring analytes. This would make it possible to accurately compare the different devices made for the
same applications, while also giving a clear picture of which aspect of the sensor needs improvement on.

CONCLUSION
2D material-based sensors is an emerging field, which has made significant progress in the last decade and still
has the promise of giving interesting output. 2D materials are particularly attractive for sensing applications
owing to their large surface area to volume ratios, mechanical flexibility, ease of functionalization to improve
target selectivity, and tunability of electronic properties using not just chemical, but electrostatic doping. Looking
at the growing demand for sensing devices in automation and monitoring applications, driven by factors like
climate change, IoT, and AI, we have tried to introduce the readers to the progress and promise of the field of
2D material based NEMS and FET sensors. We introduce the several advantages of 2D materials regarding
sensing and give a brief overview of how 2D materials interact with target analytes to produce a change in their
physical properties. It is then explained how this behavior of 2D materials can be leveraged to design field effect
transistors and nanoelectromechanical systems, which are capable of producing a readable output change when
exposed to the target analytes. To give rounded view of the field, we discuss several recent demonstrations of 2D
material-based FET and NEMS build for sensing greenhouse and toxic gases, heavy metal and essential ions,
volatile organic compounds and biomolecules, using different classes of 2D materials including graphene and
its derivatives, 2D transition metal dichalcogenides and phosphorene.

AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
Conceptualization: D.S.; Investigation: S.K., S.Y., Y.C. and D.S.; Writing – Original Draft: S.K., S.Y. and Y.C.;
Writing – Review & Editing: S.K., B.J. and D.S.; Supervision: D.S.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
The authors declare no competing interests.

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