Metal-organic frameworks-derived Al/Mo co-doped porous Co3O4 hollow tetrahedrons for efficient triethylamine detection

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) hollow porous structures have attracted great attention in surface-related fields due to their advantages such as large specific surface area, high gas permeability, and low agglomeration. In this work, Al/Mo co-doped porous Co3O4 hollow tetrahedrons derived from MOFs have been obtained using a simple solvothermal synthetic technique. Various characterizations have been used to analyze the crystalline and electronic structure. The results indicate that Al/Mo ions are successfully doped into the Co3O4 lattice and 0.2 at% Al/Mo co-doped Co3O4 shows the best sensing properties among the other Co3O4 based samples. In particular, 0.2% Al/Mo-Co3O4 exhibits the highest response values of 132–100 ppm TEA at 160 °C, which are 33 times as high as those of undoped Co3O4. Furthermore, 0.2% Al/Mo-Co3O4 also displays rapid response and recovery speed (4 s/36 s), low detection limit (0.5 ppm), good selectivity and long-term stability. The reason of enhanced TEA sensing properties is ascribed to the occurrence of 3D hollow porous structure and coupling effect of Al/Mo co-doping. Thus, 0.2 at% Al/Mo co-doped porous Co3O4 hollow tetrahedrons show promising applications in constructing high-performance chemical sensors for TEA detection.