High Sensitive and Selective Acetone Gas Sensor Using Molecular Imprinting Technique Based on Ag-LaFeO<sub>3</sub>

Abstract

Acetone is a highly volatile and colorless transparent liquid which is frequently and quantitatively represented in the composition of coatings, paints, adhesives and cleaning materials[1,2]. As good solvent and raw material for organic synthesis, acetone can volatilize easily and cause damages to eyes, noses, and central nervous system when the concentration is higher than 450 mg/m3 (173 ppm). Besides, acetone in human breath is a biomarker for diagnosis of diabetes[3]. Medical investigations have shown that the acetone concentration in exhaled breath from a healthy human body is lower than 0.8 ppm, while that for a diabetic patient is higher than 1.8 ppm[4–6]. Therefore, the development of gas sensors for rapid and selective detection of acetone attracts the interest of researchers in recent years. For the current contribution, lanthanum ferrite (LaFeO3) has been selected because of its good thermostability[7], controllable structure[8] and selectivity[9-10] for acetone.