MIL-101-derived porous WO3/FeWO4 hierarchical structures with efficient heterojunction interfaces for excellent room temperature n-butanol-sensing performance

Abstract

This study originally reports the in-situ construction of porous WO3/FeWO4 ribbon-like hierarchical composites with unique and intense heterojunction interface behavior and the enhanced adsorption and carrier transport capability for effectively detecting n-butanol at room temperature. The introduction of different adding amounts of MIL-101 plays the key role of the morphological evolution of WO3-based microstructures with the well-distributed nanoparticles in situ growth on the surface by a facile electrospinning and subsequent calcination process. Compared with pristine WO3, a sharp and useful reduction of the optimal operating temperature from 220 to 25 °C can be observed as the Fe component increasing, mainly owing to the inverted p-type gas sensitive response caused by the controllable variable of FeWO4 phase in the multiple effective WO3-FeWO4 heterojunctions. The optimal WO3/FeWO4 composites can display the highest response of 12.3 and a relatively short response/recovery times of 110/140 s to 100 ppm n-butanol at 25 °C, together with the superior gas selectivity, repeatability, humidity and long-term stability. Density functional theory (DFT) simulation is employed for verifying the significant adsorption interaction and charge transfer between n-butanol molecule and WO3/FeWO4. Regular distribution of WO3-FeWO4 heterojunction interfaces can not only determine the collaborative modulation of electronic structures, but also provide the efficient surface/interface transport mechanism for MIL-101 induced one-dimensional (1D) hierarchical ribbons. Actually, the integrated gas-sensitive components based on WO3/FeWO4 composites exhibit the rapid response characteristic under room temperature condition and provide a friendly strategy of optimizing the practical detection of ppm-level n-butanol for other inorganic heterogeneous sensors.