Highly Sensitive Ethanol Chemical Sensor Based on Novel Ag-Doped Mesoporous α–Fe2O3 Prepared by Modified Sol-Gel Process

Abstract

Mesoporous α–Fe2O3 has been synthesized via a simple sol-gel procedure in the presence of Pluronic (F-127) triblock copolymer as structure directing agent. Silver (Ag) nanoparticles were deposited onto α–Fe2O3 matrix by the photochemical reduction approach. Morphological analysis revealed the formation of Ag nanoparticles with small sizes < 20 nm onto the mesoporous structure of α–Fe2O3 possessing < 50 nm semi-spherical shape. The XRD, FTIR, Raman, UV-vis, PL, and N2 sorption isotherm studies confirmed the high crystallinity, mesoporosity, and optical characteristics of the synthesized product. The electrochemical sensing toward liquid ethanol has been performed using the current devolved Ag/α–Fe2O3-modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and current potential (I-V) techniques, and the obtained results were compared with bare GCE or pure α–Fe2O3. Mesoporous Ag/α–Fe2O3 was found to largely enhance the sensor sensitivity and it exhibited excellent sensing characteristics during the precision detection of low concentrations of ethanol. High and reproducible sensitivity of 41.27 μAmM− 1 cm− 2 at lower ethanol concentration region (0.05 to 0.8 mM) and 2.93 μAmM− 1 cm− 2 at higher concentration zone (0.8 to 15 mM), with a limit of detection (LOD) of 15.4 μM have been achieved. Investigation on reaction kinetics revealed a characteristic behavior of mixed surface and diffusion-controlled processes. Detailed sensing studies revealed also that the sensitivity toward ethanol was higher than that of methanol or isopropanol. With further effort in developing the synthesis and fabrication approaches, a proper utility for the current proposed protocol for fabricating a better sensor device performance is possible.

Sensitive Detection of Aqueous Methanol by Electrochemical Route Using Mesoporous α-Fe2O3 Doped CdSe Nanostructures Modified Glassy Carbon Electrode

“…As a dopant α-Fe 2 O 3 enhances the properties and performance of many electronic and optoelectronic devices. [14][15][16] Doping mesoporous α-Fe 2 O 3 into CdSe is expected to be a promising choice probably because of similar d-spacing, which would facilitate the coupling between both compounds. CdSe is an n-type low band-gap semiconductor material, with a wide range of applications such as in solar cells, 17 biosensors, 18 biomedical imaging, 19 photovoltaic application, 20 electrochemical sensors, 21 and many more.…”

Au Doping ZnO Nanosheets Sensing Properties of Ethanol Gas Prepared on MEMS Device

“…Most research studies consider metal oxides semiconductors as the sensing materials for developing gas sensors. There are different kinds of metal oxides for gas detections like ZnO [7], SnO 2 [8], In 2 O 3 [9], Fe 2 O 3 [10], and TiO 2 [11]. Among these metal oxides, ZnO thin films are considered mostly for developing the gas sensor [12,13].…”

Complex permittivity and power loss characteristics of α-Fe2O3/polycaprolactone (PCL) nanocomposites: effect of recycled α-Fe2O3 nanofiller

“…To date, one type of ferrites which has been less extensively utilized for such applications is α-Fe 2 O 3 . α-Fe 2 O 3 is a corundum-type iron oxide with a high chemical and thermal stability under ambient conditions and has been considerably used in several applications including chemical sensors [ 1 ], pigments [ 2 ] and anodes for lithium-ion batteries [ 3 ]. α-Fe 2 O 3 can be prepared through a variety of techniques such as chemical synthesis, gas-phase synthesis and template-based synthesis [ 4 ] which can be multi-staged with occasional complicated procedures.…”