Facile synthesis and gas-sensing performance of Sr- or Fe-doped In2O3 hollow sub-microspheres

Xiaoping Shen; Lijun Guo; Guoxing Zhu; Chunyan Xi; Zhenyuan Ji; Hu Zhou

doi:10.1039/C5RA14052H

Facile synthesis and gas-sensing performance of Sr- or Fe-doped In₂O₃ hollow sub-microspheres†

Xiaoping Shen,*^a Lijun Guo,^a Guoxing Zhu,^a Chunyan Xi,^a Zhenyuan Ji^a and Hu Zhou^b

* Corresponding authors

^a School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, P. R. China
E-mail: xiaopingshen@163.com
Fax: +86-511-88791800
Tel: +86-511-88791800

^b School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, P. R. China

Abstract

Sr- or Fe-doped In₂O₃ hollow sub-microspheres were successfully fabricated without the assistance of any additives or templates. The obtained hollow In₂O₃ sub-microspheres show relatively uniform size and band gap of ∼3.1 eV. Benefited from the hollow microstructure and doping effect, the doped In₂O₃ sub-microspheres show excellent gas sensing performance towards a series of organic solvents. For 100 ppm of formaldehyde, the Sr- and Fe-doped In₂O₃ sensors demonstrate sensing responses of 9.4 and 5.5, respectively. These values are much higher than previously reported In₂O₃-based gas sensors. Interestingly, Fe-doped In₂O₃ shows relatively higher sensing response to propanol than that of Sr-doped In₂O₃, although towards formaldehyde, ethanol, acetone and heptane, Sr-doped In₂O₃ shows relatively higher sensing responses. This investigation therefore indicates that doped In₂O₃ hollow microstructures could be an effective platform for sensing hazardous indoor formaldehyde gas, and that sensing selectivity could be improved through the doping effect.

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/C5RA14052H
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 16 Jul 2015
Accepted: 22 Jul 2015
First published: 22 Jul 2015

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RSC Adv., 2015,5, 64228-64234

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Facile synthesis and gas-sensing performance of Sr- or Fe-doped In₂O₃ hollow sub-microspheres

X. Shen, L. Guo, G. Zhu, C. Xi, Z. Ji and H. Zhou, RSC Adv., 2015, 5, 64228 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA14052H

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