Porous Javelin‐Like NiFe2O4 Nanorods as n‐Propanol Sensor with Ultrahigh‐Performance

Abstract

AbstractThe online detection of n‐propanol concentration is required for health and safety issues in industry. Herein, through a morphology‐inherited annealing treatment of Ni/Fe bimetallic metal‐organic framework as the template, this paper reported the synthesis of porous javelin‐like NiFe2O4 nanorods. As gas sensing material, the ferrite showed n‐type gas‐sensing behavior as its resistance decreased in reducing gas atmospheres, and exhibited excellent n‐propanol sensing performance (the sensing response is 6.4 to 5 ppm) with ultralow detection limits (0.41 ppm) and ultrahigh gas sensitivity (1.13 ppm−1) toward n‐propanol at relatively low working temperature (120 °C). Meanwhile, the sensor showed good selectivity to n‐propanol as well as excellent cyclic and long‐term stability. The unique morphology and porous structure of NiFe2O4 nanorods may be responsible for the excellent performance, which offer more reactive sites and accelerate the diffusion of n‐propanol gas. This facile method of preparing porous metal oxides could be extended to fabricate other gas sensing materials applied to detect other target gases.