Improving methane gas sensing performance of flower-like SnO2 decorated by WO3 nanoplates

Dongping Xue; Yan Wang; Jianliang Cao; Guang Sun; Zhanying Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2019.03.014

Improving methane gas sensing performance of flower-like SnO₂ decorated by WO₃ nanoplates

Talanta. 2019 Jul 1:199:603-611. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2019.03.014. Epub 2019 Mar 2.

Authors

Dongping Xue¹, Yan Wang², Jianliang Cao³, Guang Sun¹, Zhanying Zhang¹

Affiliations

¹ The Collaboration Innovation Center of Coal Safety Production of Henan Province, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China; School of Materials Science and Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China.
² The Collaboration Innovation Center of Coal Safety Production of Henan Province, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China; College of Safety Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory Cultivation Bases for Gas Geology and Gas Control, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China. Electronic address: yanwang@hpu.edu.cn.
³ The Collaboration Innovation Center of Coal Safety Production of Henan Province, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo 454000, China.

PMID: 30952304
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2019.03.014

Abstract

The three-dimensional (3D) hierarchical WO₃-SnO₂ nanoflowers (NFs) composites were successfully synthesized via a simple impregnation method by using WO₃ and SnO₂ prepared by hydrothermal method as precursors. The structure and morphology of the as-prepared samples were investigated by the techniques of X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission electron scanning microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and N₂ sorption. These results indicated that SnO₂ and WO₃-SnO₂ nanostructures with a diameter of about 500 nm self-assembled by numerous nanorods of about 200 nm in length. Gas sensing test results show that the nanostructure WO₃-SnO₂ nanocomposites possess better methane sensing properties than that of pure SnO₂. The modification of WO₃ nanoplates reduces the optimum working temperature of SnO₂ based sensor from 120 °C to 110 °C, the response of WO₃-SnO₂ based sensor to 500 ppm methane at 110 °C is 2.3 times of that of pure SnO₂ based sensor. In addition, the WO₃-SnO₂ based sensor possesses lower detection limit, good repeatability and stability. The improved gas-sensing mechanism of the nanocomposite based sensors for methane detection is also discussed in detail.

Keywords: Gas sensor; Impregnation method; Methane; SnO(2) nanoflowers; WO(3)-SnO(2) nanostructures.