Highly sensitive detection of H2S gas at low temperature based on ZnCo2O4 microtube sensors

Tingting Xu; Mingxia Zhang; Fangbo Zhao; Jing Zhao; Wenbo Cong; Chunling Xie; Zi Yang; Guiling Wang; Junqing Li

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129753

Highly sensitive detection of H₂S gas at low temperature based on ZnCo₂O₄ microtube sensors

J Hazard Mater. 2022 Oct 15:440:129753. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129753. Epub 2022 Aug 11.

Authors

Tingting Xu¹, Mingxia Zhang¹, Fangbo Zhao¹, Jing Zhao², Wenbo Cong¹, Chunling Xie³, Zi Yang¹, Guiling Wang¹, Junqing Li⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, PR China.
² Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, PR China. Electronic address: zhtdzhn@163.com.
³ Ocean College, Yantai University, Yantai 264005, PR China. Electronic address: ydxcl703@126.com.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Superlight Materials and Surface Technology of Ministry of Education, College of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, PR China. Electronic address: lijunqing@hrbeu.edu.cn.

PMID: 35988496
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2022.129753

Abstract

It is extremely necessary to detect Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) due to the hazardous nature. Thus, it is required to design a material which can detect H₂S gas at low temperature. In this work, ZnCo₂O₄ microtubes are prepared by using absorbent cotton as template, combining immersion method in metal salt solution (Zn:Co=1:2) with calcination treatment in air. The influence of calcination temperature on the particle size and sensing property was also discussed. The diameter of particles on the ZnCo₂O₄ microtubes increases with increasing calcination temperature. The hollow microtubes of ZnCo₂O₄ materials calcined at 600 °C (ZCO-600) exhibit superb sensing performance to H₂S at 90 °C with the lowest detection limit of 50 ppb. The optimum operating temperature (90 °C) was lower than the other reported ZnCo₂O₄ sensors. ZCO-600 sensor also shows excellent selectivity, repeatability, stability, humidity resistance and the good linear relationship in ppb and ppm level H₂S. In addition, the feasible sensing mechanism of ZCO-600 to H₂S is explored on the basis of XPS analysis. Thus, ZnCo₂O₄ as a sensing material possesses widespread application prospects for the detection of trace H₂S gas.

Keywords: Gas sensing; H(2)S; Mechanism analysis; Operating temperature; ZnCo(2)O(4) hollow microtubes.