High Sensitive $\alpha$-Fe$_2$O$_3$ Nano-structured Gas Sensor Fabricated through Annealing Technique for Detecting Ethanol

TL;DR

This study presents a simple annealing-based fabrication of hematite nanostructures with enhanced sensitivity and selectivity for ethanol gas detection, achieving a detection limit of 50 ppm and rapid response times.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel, facile annealing process to produce hematite nanostructures optimized for ethanol sensing with improved performance.

Findings

Maximum response at 1000 ppm ethanol

Shortest response time of 27 seconds at 200 ppm

Detection limit of 50 ppm

Abstract

On the way to advance the sensing technology, various strategies based on the nano-materials have been introduced to improve the performance of the gas sensors. In this study, we have introduced a facile fabrication procedure for annealing hematite to monitor ethanol gas. Due to large specific area of this conductive platform, more available target molecules (ethanol gas) are detected. To construct this platform, initially, a large scale well-separated iron oxide (hematite) nanostructures are created via an annealing process. The morphology of the nanostructure is optimized through annealing temperature and operating temperature for ethanol gas. The best response for the gas sensor is achieved for hematite nanostructures fabricated through the annealing temperature of 500{\deg}C and the operating temperature of 225$^\circ$C. The fabricated nanostructures is tested in air ambient conditions for various ethanol gas concentrations from 50 to 1000 ppm. The modified sensor exhibited acceptable reproducibility and good selectivity with no interference-effect. To examine the X-ray diffraction patterns of hematite nanostructures at three annealed temperatures, the Rietveld method and FullProf software are used in which the average crystal size has been obtained. Obviously, with increasing the annealing temperature, the average size of the crystals has been increased. The results of ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy show that the energy gap decreased with increasing annealing temperature. The maximum sensing response of hematite flower-like nanostructures is obtained at a concentration of 1000 ppm. Also, the shortest response time is estimated at about 27 seconds for ethanol at a concentration of 200 ppm. The detection limit of this sensor is obtained at 50 ppm.