Pr-doped In₂O₃ nanocubes induce oxygen vacancies for enhancing triethylamine gas-sensing performance

Abstract

Nanocubes derived from pure In₂O₃ and xPr-In₂O₃ (x= 1, 2, 3 and 5 mol.%) were synthesized using a facile hydrothermal method, followed by calcination. The morphological and structural characterization demonstrated that as-synthesized samples presented regular cubes that decreased in size with the increase of the Pr doping. The data showed that the sensing performances of sensors based on In₂O₃ were notably improved after the Pr doping. Among them, the sensor based on 2 mol.% Pr-In₂O₃ had the best sensing performance towards the triethylamine (TEA) gas, including a high response (R_a/R_g = 260 to 100 ppm TEA gas, which is about 12 times higher than that of the sensor based on pure In₂O₃), a short response time (2 s), and a low detection limit (0.2 ppm) at 350 °C. The mechanism responsible for the enhancement of sensing performance was attributed to the improvement of the vacancy content of 2 mol.% Pr-In₂O₃, which promoted the oxidation–reduction reaction with the TEA gas that occurred on the materials surface.

Keywords

gas sensor / Pr-dope In₂O₃ / triethylamine / oxygen vacancy

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21471120), the International Cooperation Project of Hubei Province (2012IHA00201), the Educational Commission of Hubei Province of China (T201306), and the Graduate Innovative Fund of Wuhan Institute of Technology (CX2018152).

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