School of Chemistry and Environmental Engineering, Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Process (Ministry of Education), Hubei Key Lab of Novel Reactor & Green Chemical Technology, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430073, China
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 (Ra/Rg = 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.
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