Journal of Electronic Materials (2023) 52:3092–3102

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-023-10218-y

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Preparation of Carbon Material Derived from Walnut Shell and Its

Gas‑Sensing Properties
L. X. Liu1,2 · Z. F. Wu1,2 · Q. H. Sun1,2 · M. Zhang1,2 · H. M. Duan1,2

Received: 8 October 2022 / Accepted: 4 January 2023 / Published online: 17 February 2023
© The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society 2023

Abstract
China is the largest walnut producer with the largest planting area and output in the world. The discarded walnut shell (WS) is
often burned or incinerated, which not only causes environmental pollution, but also may exacerbate the greenhouse effect. In
order to realize resource utilization, WS was prepared into N-doped carbon materials through a simple and environmentally
friendly hydrothermal reaction at 180°C. In order to further improve the N content of the product, peptone and WS were added
to the hydrothermal reaction together to prepare carbon materials with higher N content. The gas-sensing properties of two
biomass carbon materials were compared. The results show that higher N doping in carbon material derived from walnut shell
contributes to higher selectivity for formaldehyde (­ CH2O) and hydrogen peroxide (­ H2O2) at room temperature. Compared
with the carbon material derived from pure WS, the responses of higher-N-doped carbon materials to ­CH2O and ­H2O2 was
increased by 12 and 14 times, respectively. And the high-N-doped carbon material can detect a low concentration of ­H2O2
(0.29 ppm). This work provides a reference for the green utilization of fruit shells and the development of sensing materials.

Keywords Walnut shell · peptone · biomass carbon · gas sensor · N doping

Introduction emission reduction and reduced environmental pollution is

As we all know, there are abundant energy resources in
nature, which have brought great convenience to daily life
through their effective use by humans. At present, the three
most widely used energy sources are coal, oil and natural
gas (accounting for about 80% of the total annual use), of
which coal and oil are fossil fuels. However, due to the lim-
ited storage of fossil fuels, non-renewability and other short-
comings, as well as the massive exploitation and utilization
by humans, these energy sources will be exhausted in the
next few years.1 And when they are used, they inevitably
bring certain hazards, such as waste gas, and inflammable,
explosive, and toxic and harmful substances that are pro-
duced, which not only destroy the natural environment, but
also affect human health.2–5 Therefore, the development of a
natural resource with rich sources, energy conservation and
* Z. F. Wu
wuzf@xju.edu.cn
1
Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Solid State Physics and Devices,
Urumqi 830046, Xinjiang, China
2
School of Physics Science and Technology, Xinjiang
University, Urumqi 830046, Xinjiang, China
critical. As a rich renewable resource in nature, biomass is
the fourth largest energy source after coal, oil and natural
gas. Through continuous exploration and research, the prep-
aration of carbon materials from waste biomass raw materi-
als not only reduces the greenhouse effect and environmental
pollution caused by the combustion of waste biomass, but
also has great application value in the fields of supercapaci-
tors, sensing materials and adsorption.
Compared with traditional fossil energy, biochar has
many advantages, such as low cost, large specific surface
area, a naturally porous or layered structure, and good con-
ductivity. Therefore, it plays a vital role in detecting toxic
and harmful gases. At present, the most widely used semi-
conductor gas sensor materials are metal oxide semiconduc-
tors,6–8 organic semiconductors,9–11 and graphene and other
two-dimensional materials.12–14 Although these traditional
gas sensor materials are widely used, they have their own
shortcomings. Biomass carbon materials are used in the
field of sensors because of their excellent sensitivity and
selectivity, fast response and recovery, and high stability.
For example, Song et al.15 used the waste scallion root as
the biological template to fabricate a sensor, which realized
high sensitivity in the detection of trace ­H2S gas. This sensor

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Preparation of Carbon Material Derived from Walnut Shell and Its Gas‑Sensing Properties 3093
not only has good selectivity, stability, moisture resistance
and low detection limit (1 ppb), but also can detect the cor-
ruption process of fresh chicken. The S-doped S ­ nO2 sensor
prepared by Li et al.16 with hemp stem as the biological
template showed good response to ­NO2 and showed excel-
lent characteristics such as fast response recovery time, low
detection limit, good stability and repeatability. Sun et al.17
used rose as raw material to prepare porous biomass carbon
materials with folded structure. This sensor shows an ultra-
high response to ­NH3, and the theoretical detection limit
is only 4.82 ppb. In addition, it also shows rapid recovery
(2 s), good repeatability and long-term stability. Combined
with bionic structure, it provides a new idea for gas sensor.
These biochar materials have good applications in the field
of sensors, which are worth further study.
Walnut shell (WS) has come to our attention because of
its excellent porous structure. China is rich in walnut germ-
plasm resources, and has a large area of cultivation in all
provinces and cities across the country. China is the larg-
est walnut-producing country in the world, and its output
accounts for about one fourth of the world's total output.
Because of its unique flavor and high nutrition, walnut has
become an important raw material in the food industry
and has high development and utilization value. However,
humans throw their shells into the natural environment
at will, which not only causes significant waste, but also
increases the load on the environment. Another research
group prepared a biochar-ZnO composite material from
hickory as a photocatalyst. This composite material has
excellent catalytic efficiency, with a removal rate of Reac-
tive Red 97 as high as 100% in just 67 min, and is widely
used in the degradation of organic pollutants.18 However,
the utilization rate of WS is still relatively low, so improv-
ing utilization has become a hot spot of our attention. It is
reported that homogeneous nitrogen doping of biomass can
effectively improve its sensing and energy storage perfor-
mance,19 and peptone, as an organic nitrogen compound,
can fully provide the nitrogen source for biomass. Therefore,
how to effectively use these two substances has become the
focus of our research.
Fig. 1  Schematic diagram of preparation of WSCP.
In order to realize the resource utilization of WS waste, in
this study, WS is used as raw material, samples are prepared
through a simple hydrothermal method and peptone-loaded
composite carbon materials are made, and their morphol-
ogy, structure and gas-sensing performance are tested, which
provides more possibilities for the sensor family.
Experimental Part
Materials
Ammonia ­( NH 3), phenol ­(C 6H 6O), hydrogen peroxide
­(H2O2), formaldehyde ­(CH2O) and ethanol ­(C2H6O) were
purchased from Beijing Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co.,
Ltd. Peptone was purchased from Beijing Aoboxing Biology
Tech Co., Ltd. WS were purchased from dried fruit shops
in Xinjiang and ground into powder for experimentation.
Preparation of WS Carbon Material
First, two parts of WS powder with mass of 3 g were
weighed, respectively, one of which was mixed with 0.3 g
of peptone, and subsequently they were placed in polyte-
trafluoroethylene containing 40 ml of deionized water and
stirred well. Next, they were placed in a stainless-steel auto-
clave and kept at 180°C for 10 h, and the reaction system
was naturally cooled to room temperature (Fig. 1). Then, the
obtained products were collected by centrifugation, washed
with deionized water, and dried at 60°C for 8 h. Finally, for
the convenience of description, the raw WS, hydrothermal
raw WS powder carbon material and the biomass carbon
material mixed with WS powder and peptone were labeled
WS, WSC and WSCP, respectively.
Manufacturing and Testing of Sensor Components
The interdigital silver palladium electrode sheet was pur-
chased from Beijing Alite Co., Ltd. First, some WSC and
WSCP samples were mixed with an appropriate amount of
13
3094
deionized water and ground fully to form a uniform slurry.
Then the slurry was coated on the electrode with a thin
brush, and the WSC and WSCP sensors were prepared by
drying at room temperature for 24 h. The gas sensitivity test
of the sensor was completed by using a photoelectric com-
prehensive tester (AES-4SD Precision Mechanical Control
Module, Beijing Elite Tech Co., Ltd.).
Material Characterization
The morphology of the samples was characterized by field
emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM, S-4800,
Hitachi, Japan). The crystal structure of the sample was
characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD) (BrukerD8 pro-
pulsion, Cu-kα). The surface properties of the samples were
recorded using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectrom-
etry (Bruker-Vertex70, Karlsruhe, Germany). Raman spec-
trometry (Raman spectrometer, Horiba, iHR550, Shanghai,
China) and UV spectrophotometry (UV–Vis, Lambda 650,
USA) were performed. The specific surface area and pore
size distribution of WSC and WSCP samples were charac-
terized by ­N2 adsorption–desorption measurement (Micro
ASAP2460).
Results and Discussion
Characterization Results of WSC and WSCP
Figure 2a, b, and c shows the SEM image of the original
WS carbon material after hydrothermal treatment. Figure 2a,
b, and c shows that the WSC samples have holes of differ-
ent sizes and shows a disordered and irregularly distributed
Fig. 2  SEM images of (a, b, and c) WSC and (d, e, and f) WSCP.
13
L. X. Liu et al.
folding structure. A possible reason for this morphology is
that the temperature decreases some easily decomposable
soluble carbohydrates in the WS structure and loosens the
surface structure of the WS. As shown in Fig. 2d, e, and
f, after adding peptone for carbonization, a large number
of carbon materials are stacked together to make the pore
structure more compact. The increase of pore space might
provide more channels and reaction sites for the target gas,
which facilitates the adsorption and desorption of the tar-
get gas, and effectively improves the sensitivity and sensing
speed.
To further demonstrate the successful incorporation of
peptone, the elemental composition of the two materials is
compared and analyzed. Figure 3a and b are the SEM images
of WSC and WSCP, respectively, and Fig. 3c, d, g, h, i,
and j are their corresponding mapping diagrams. It can be
clearly seen in the mapping diagram corresponding to WSC
that it is consistent with the contour of the corresponding
SEM images, which contains a large number of C and O and
a small amount of N, which is determined by the nutshell
biomass carbon material itself. After adding peptone, it can
be clearly seen in the Fig. 3g, h, i, and j that WSCP contains
not only a large number of C and O, but also increases the
content of N and adds a small amount of P. The addition
of peptone enriches the elements contained in the material
and provides a large number of active sites, which makes it
easier to react with small gas molecules, so as to effectively
improve the gas-sensing performance.
Figure 4a shows the XRD analysis of WSC and WSCP
carbon materials to observe their crystal structure. In Fig. 4a,
it can be seen that WSCP has a low and wide diffraction
peak near 15.0°, which corresponds to the characteristic
peak of cellulose.20 WSC and WSCP at 34.9° corresponds
Preparation of Carbon Material Derived from Walnut Shell and Its Gas‑Sensing Properties 3095
Fig. 3  SEM images of (a) WSC and (b) WSCP; elemental mapping of (c, d, e, and f) WSC and (g, h, i, and j) WSCP.
to the characteristic peaks of cellulose.21 Both WSC and
WSCP materials have a characteristic peak at 22.3°, which
corresponds to the state of amorphous carbon. It can also
be seen that the hydrothermal carbonization temperature
does not destroy the structure of cellulose, but the intensity
of the diffraction peak of WSCP is significantly enhanced
compared with that of WSC.22 This may be because peptone
plays a catalytic role in the hydrothermal reaction, promot-
ing the carbonization of WS.
Raman spectroscopy is used to further analyze the charac-
teristic peaks of the WSC and WSCP. As shown in Fig. 4b,
the Raman spectra of the WSC and WSCP samples has two
characteristic peaks at 1350 ­cm−1 and 1580 ­cm−1, which are
the D peak and the G peak, respectively.23 The D peak rep-
resents the disordered vibration peak of graphene of carbon
material, while the G peak represents the in-plane stretching
vibration peak of the ­sp2 carbon atom. ID and IG to represent
the intensity of the D peak and the G peak, respectively, and
the relative intensity ratio of ID/IG reflects the graphitization
degree of carbon materials.24 The ­ID /IG values of WSC and
WSCP carbon materials are 0.89 and 0.93, respectively. This
high ratio not only reflects that the WSC and WSCP materi-
als have a certain degree of graphitization, but also that they
have certain structural defects. This is precisely because this
high defect structure provides more reactive sites for the gas-
sensing process and improves the gas-sensing performance.
It is worth pointing out that the D and G peaks of the WSCP
sample are more obvious than those of the WSC sample,
which may also indicate that peptone plays a catalytic car-
bonization role in the hydrothermal reaction, and promotes
the carbonization of WS.
Figure 4c shows the UV–Vis absorption spectra of WS,
WSC and WSCP. It can be seen from Fig. 4c that within
the range of visible light range, the absorbance of the mate-
rial after hydrothermal carbonization has been significantly
enhanced, while the carbonization degree of WSCP is higher
than that of WSC, which corresponds to the Raman diagram
of the material, and also shows that hydrothermal carboni-
zation has a certain impact on the structure of the material.
Figure 4d shows the functional groups of different materials.
It can be seen from Fig. 4d that the biomass carbon material
is rich in functional groups after hydrothermal carboniza-
tion, and the absorption peaks of the infrared spectrum after
adding peptone and without adding peptone are probably in
the same position, but there are some changes in intensity.
The peaks at about 3423 ­cm−1 and 2929 ­cm−1 are OH in the
sample and C-H bonds in the aliphatic compound.25,26 It can
be seen that the strength of the characteristic peak decreases
after hydrothermal carbonization. The peaks at 1706 ­cm−1
and 1648 ­cm−1 are produced by the contraction vibration
of the C=O bond in the ketone carbonyl group and the
C=C bond in the benzene ring in lignin.27,28 The intensity
13
3096
Fig. 4  (a) XRD and (b) Raman spectra of WSC and WSCP, (c)
UV–vis and (d) FT-IR spectra of WS, WSC and WSCP. (e) Nitro-
gen adsorption desorption isotherm curve and pore size distribution
of characteristic peak basically does not change, indicating
that the double bond is not easy to break. The peaks at 1648,
1551 ­cm−1 and 1404 ­cm−1 correspond to the tensile vibration
of protein amide I, protein amide II and protein amide III,
respectively.29 The peaks at 1183 ­cm−1 and 775 ­cm−1 cor-
respond to C-N bond and P-O-P bond, respectively,30 which
may be formed by the amino acids rich in proteins. The peak
near 2100 ­cm−1 corresponds to the stretching vibration of
NH+3 group, near 1600 ­cm−1 is the characteristic absorption
peak of ­COO−1.31 The hydrothermal carbonization process
in the biomass carbon material is accompanied by deoxida-
tion, decarboxylation, polymerization and other reactions,
which leads to the fracture of C-O, C-H, and -OH bonds,
and a change in the WSCP carbon structure.
The specific surface area and pore size distribution of
WSC and WSCP samples were characterized by ­N2 adsorp-
tion desorption measurement, as shown in Fig. 4e and f,
respectively. According to the results in Fig. 4e and f, the
13
L. X. Liu et al.
of WSC. (f) Nitrogen adsorption desorption isotherm curve and pore
size distribution of WSCP.
isotherms of both WSC and WSCP samples show I-type iso-
therms.32 The nitrogen adsorption capacity increases sharply
under low relative pressure, indicating that there is a large
number of micropores, which may be formed during the
carbonization process. The specific surface area of WSC
and WSCP is 313.6743 ­m2/g and 363.1273 ­m2/g, respec-
tively. It is found that the specific surface area of WSCP
has been greatly improved. Large specific surface area and
proper pore size distribution can make the sample react more
easily with gas molecules, thus improving the gas-sensing
performance. Figure 4e and f also shows the BJH (Barrett-
Joyner-Halenda) aperture distribution of WSC and WSCP,
respectively.33 It can be found that they all have a large num-
ber of microporous structures between 1 nm and 2 nm and a
small number of small mesoporous structures between 2 nm
and 10 nm. Therefore, the addition of peptone plays a cata-
lytic carbonation role, and contributes to the larger specific
surface area of the WSCP.
Preparation of Carbon Material Derived from Walnut Shell and Its Gas‑Sensing Properties 3097

In order to further confirm the elemental distribution of
the WSC and WSCP, the chemical structures were analyzed
by XPS. As shown in Fig. 5a, the three characteristic peaks
at 284.0 eV, 397.6 eV and 531.9 eV represent C 1s, N 1s and
O 1s, respectively. The C 1s high-resolution spectra of WSC
(Fig. 5b) and WSCP (Fig. 5e) samples at 283.3, 284.7 and
287.0 eV represent O-C=O, C-C and C-O functional groups,
respectively.34,35 In Fig. 5c and f, the characteristic peaks
at 530.8 eV and 531.8 eV are attributed to oxygen vacancy
­(OV) and chemisorbed oxygen ­(OC), respectively.36,37 In the
N 1s spectrum, the peaks at 398.7 eV and 401.4 eV cor-
respond to pyridine N (N-6) and pyrrole N (N-5), respec-
tively.38 In Fig. 5a, it can be seen that the content of N-6 and
­OC in WSCP increased and a small amount of P (0.11%) was
also introduced into the WSCP. The increase in N (2.83%)
in the WSCP was particularly marked and nearly 2.3 times
greater than that (1.22%) of the WSC. This shows that the
introduction of peptone can effectively achieve N and P dop-
ing of carbon materials. Generally speaking, the introduc-
tion of N, P and O increases the defects of carbon materials
and then increases the reactive sites to some target gases,
improving the selectivity and sensitivity.19
Gas‑Sensing Properties of WSC and WSCP
The gas-sensing performance of WSC and WSCP sensors
to 1000 ppm of ammonia ­(NH3), phenol ­(C6H6O), hydro-
gen peroxide (­ H2O2), formaldehyde (­ CH2O), 85% relative

Fig. 5  (a) XPS spectra of WSC and WSCP; (b) C 1s, (c) O 1s and (d) N 1s of high-resolution XPS spectra of WSC; (e) C 1s, (f) O 1s and (g) N
1s of high resolution XPS spectra of WSCP.

13
3098
humidity (RH) and ethanol ­(C2H6O) was tested at room
temperature (25°C). As shown in Fig. 6a, the response of
the WSC sensor to ­NH3, ­C6H6O, ­H2O2, ­CH2O, 85% RH
and ­C2H6O is about 21.4 K%, 24.9 K%, 19.2 K%, 8.8 K%,
37.4 K% and 4.2 K%, respectively, while the response of
the WSCP sensor for six target gases is about 2.3 K%,
24.2 K%, 228.9 K%, 125.3 K%, 35.6 K% and 2.6 K%,
respectively. It can be seen that the WSCP sensor not only
improves immunity to 85% RH compared with the WSC
sensor, but also effectively improves the response to C
­ H2O
and ­H2O2, and shows better selectivity to H ­ 2O2. In order
to more intuitively evaluate the performance of the two
sensors, the response, response time and recovery time are
shown in Fig. 6b, c, and d. The response time of the WSCP
sensor to ­H2O 2 and C ­ H 2O is 29.3 s and 38.9 s, and the
Fig. 6  (a) The sensing response curves of WSC and WSCP to target gases ­NH3, ­C6H6O, ­H2O2, ­CH2O, 85% RH and ­C2H6O, respectively, and the
statistical diagrams of (b) response size, (c) response time and (d) recovery time.
13
L. X. Liu et al.
recovery time is 3.3 s and 2.9 s, respectively. Compared
with the WSC sensor, the sensing performance of the
WSCP sensor has been greatly improved, and it can effec-
tively detect ­H 2O 2 and ­C H 2O quickly. The detection of
­H2O2 is often closely related to chronic obstructive pulmo-
nary disease (COPD), cancer, traumatic brain injury and
asthma. Moreover, H ­ 2O2 is a byproduct of many enzyme
catalyzed metabolic pathways, such as the oxidation of
cholesterol, glucose, alcohol, lactic acid and fatty acids.
In addition, hydrogen peroxide also plays an important
role in cell oxidative stress, and its high concentration in
blood, urine and respiration may be related to diseases.
Therefore, the detection of H ­ 2O2 is crucial, and the excel-
lent selectivity of the WSCP sensor to H ­ 2O2 can meet the
detection requirements.
Preparation of Carbon Material Derived from Walnut Shell and Its Gas‑Sensing Properties 3099

In order to better evaluate the performance of the sensor,
the response of the WSCP sensor to different concentrations
of ­H2O2 is tested, as shown in Fig. 7a. The detection limit of
the WSCP sensor for ­H2O2 is fitted according to the detec-
tion limit = 3 SD/m, where SD represents the standard error
of noise in the sensing curve and m represents the linear
slope of the calibration curve. It can be clearly seen that
with the decrease of ­H2O2 vapor concentration, its response
also decreases. According to the fitting results in Fig. 7b,
the detection limit of the WSCP sensor for H ­ 2O2 is about
0.29 ppm. Therefore, the sensor not only has low working
temperature and high sensitivity, but also can detect low
concentrations of ­H2O2.
In order to better evaluate the sensing performance of the
WSCP sensor, the comprehensive performance of the ­H2O2
sensor based on different materials is listed in Table I. As
shown in the table, almost all of the ­H2O2 sensors operate at
room temperature, showing good low-power performance.
It is found that the detection limit of the WSCP sensor is
higher than that of the CS–Cu and SWCNTs. 39,41 How-
ever, the response time of WSCP sensor is slightly longer
than that of the CS–Cu and SWCNTs. Compared with
­YFe1−xMnxO3 and Pt-SWCNTs, the detection limit of WSCP
sensor is lower, while the response time of WSCP sensor is
shorter than that of the Pt-SWCNTs.40,43 It is worth pointing
out that compared with other sensing materials, the WSCP
material comes from discarded WS, which not only realizes
the recycling of waste, but also effectively reduces the cost
of the ­H2O2 sensor. Good comprehensive performance and
low cost are more conducive to the application of sensors in
practical situations.
Sensing Mechanism
As we all know, for semiconductor materials, the sensing
performance depends on the depth (L) of the charge deple-
tion layer and the particle size of the semiconductor materi-
als. In general, increasing L and decreasing the particle size
of semiconductor materials help to improve their sensing
sensitivity.44,45
The expression of L is as follows:19
)1∕2
(1)
(
L = LD 2𝛽VS

where LD and VS are Debye length and surface barrier,

respectively.

eNt2
VS = (2)
2𝜀0 𝜀r Nd

√
𝜀0 𝜀r kT
LD = (3)
e2 Nd

According to the above formula, it can be deduced that:

√
√ 2
√N N
L = √ t2 = t (4)
Nd Nd

Fig. 7  (a) Response curves of the WSCP sensor to different concen- where Nt and Nd are oxygen adsorption and carrier concen-
trations of ­H2O2 vapor; (b) the fitting plots of response versus concen- tration of semiconductor materials, respectively.
tration of H
­ 2O2.

Table I  Comparison of ­H2O2 sensors based on different materials

Samples Temperature Concentration Response/recovery time Detection limit References

YFe1−xMnxO3 25°C 1000 ppm < 10 s/ < 2 s 1.75 ppb 39

SWCNTs 25°C 100 ppm 20 s/ 25 ppm 40
Pt-SWCNTs 23 ± 1°C 60.6 ppm 240 s/ 27 ppb 41
CoPc-f-MWNTs Ambient temperature 34% ­H2O2 (aq) vapors 2 s/ – 42
CS–Cu 80°C 216 ppm 2–5 s/ 1 ppm 43
WSCP 25°C 18 ppm 26.8 s/1.7 s 0.29 ppm This work

13
3100
When the sensing material is exposed to the reducing
steam ­CH2O, the following reactions occur:46
CH2 O(g) + O−2(s) → CO2 + H2 O + e− (5)
When the sensing material is exposed to H ­ 2O2, different
concentrations of ­H2O2 have different reaction modes.
At a high concentration of H­ 2O2 (about 10 vol.%), the
following reactions occur:47
2 H2 O2 → 2 H2 O + O2 (6)
At a low concentration (2.1 vol.%), the reaction is as
follows:
2 H2 O2 → 2 H2 O + 0.87 O2 + 0.08 O3 (7)
In this work, the steam generated by the thermal evap-
oration of ­H2O2 solution is used, the reaction of occurs
according to Eq. 6, and the WSCP sensor has an enhanced
response to ­H2O2. Compared with WSC, the response of
WSCP to H ­ 2O2 is significantly improved, and the possible
reason is the introduction of peptone. On the one hand, the
introduction of peptone increases the doping content of N
in WSCP compared to WSC (Fig. 8a and b), resulting in
more defects and higher specific surface area in the WSCP
material (Figs. 4e, f and 5a). The greater number of defects
and higher specific surface area in the WSCP material helps
to increase the Nt and reduce the Nd , which in turn increases
Fig. 8  Schematic diagram sensing mechanism (a) WSC and (b) WSCP.
13
L. X. Liu et al.
L of the charge depletion layer (Fig. 8b) according to Eq. 4.
In addition, since P and N belong to the fifth major group in
the periodic table, the introduction of P plays a similar role
to N in the process of gas sensing. On the other hand, the
introduction of peptone deepens the degree of carbonization
of WS and increases the doping content of P and N in the
WSCP. At the same time, compared with other target gas
molecules, the increasing content of P and N in the WSCP
may be more conducive to the adsorption of ­H2O2 and ­CH2O
molecules, so the WSCP material eventually shows good
sensitivity and selectivity for ­H2O2 and ­CH2O molecules.
Conclusion
Using WS as raw material, WSC and WSCP sensors were
prepared by an environmentally friendly hydrothermal
method, and their sensing properties were tested. The effects
of peptone on the structure and properties of the carbon
materials derive from WS were analyzed. The results show
that the WSCP sensor has better gas sensitivity to ­CH2O and
­H2O2 due to the introduction of a large number of active sites
due to N doping, and its response is 12 times and 14 times
larger than that of the WSC sensor, respectively. The WSCP
sensor can detect low concentration (0.29 ppm) ­H2O2 and
the possible sensing mechanisms are analyzed. The effec-
tive detection of H
­ 2O2 also contributes to the prevention of
Preparation of Carbon Material Derived from Walnut Shell and Its Gas‑Sensing Properties 3101
traumatic brain injury, asthma and other diseases. This work
improves the utilization rate of WS, and also provides more
possibilities for gas sensors derived from waste biomass.
Acknowledgments This research was funded by the National Natu-
ral Science Foundation of China (21964016, 61864011), the Natu-
ral Science Foundation of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region
(2019D01C019), the Natural Science Foundation of Department of
Education Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XJEDU2020Y004),
the Youth Science Foundation of Guizhou Province Education Ministry
(QJHKY [2019]115), and the Tianshan Innovation Team Program of
Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (2020D14038).
Conflict of interest The authors declare that they have no conflicting
financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
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