Facile and simple synthesis of novel iron oxide foam and used as acetone gas sensor with sub-ppm level

• Published in: Journal of alloys and compounds Vol. 815; p. 152406
• Main Authors: Han, Dongqiang, Zhao, Miao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lausanne Elsevier B.V 30.01.2020; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Acetone; Ammonia; Citric acid; Detection; Gas sensor; Gas sensors; Gaseous diffusion; Iron oxide foam; Iron oxides; Porosity; Raw materials; Sensors; Sol-gel auto-combustion; Sol-gel processes; Sub-ppm level; Gas sensor; Sub-ppm level; Sol-gel auto-combustion; Acetone; Iron oxide foam
• ISSN: 0925-8388; 1873-4669
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2019.152406

Novel foam of iron oxide was specially synthesized for a gas sensor by a facile and simple sol-gel auto-combustion method, only using iron nitrate, citric acid and ammonia as the raw materials. The morphological characterizations revealed that the foam assembles a novel architecture decorated with numerous nano/micro-scale holes. A new gas sensor towards the acetone was fabricated taking such foam as the sensing material. Notably, gas sensing measurements showed that the devised gas sensor exhibits superior sensing properties with relatively nice response, perfect response-recovery characteristic, the sub-ppm level detection and excellent repeatability. These sensing performances could be attributed to the unique microstructure of the foam with decorated holes and excellent porosity, which facilitates the gas diffusion and transport a lot. [Display omitted] •Novel iron oxide foam decorated with nano/micro-holes were fabricated.•The fabrication route was relatively facile, simple and cost-effective.•A new gas sensor for acetone was devised based on such novel foam.•The gas sensor exhibited perfect performances towards acetone gas.