Ppb-Level NO2 Sensor with High Selectivity Fabricated by Flower-like Au-Loaded In2O3

Abstract

With increasingly serious environmental problems caused by the improvement in people’s living standards, the number of cars has increased sharply in recent years, which directly leads to the continuous increase in the concentration of NO2 in the air. NO2 is a common toxic and irritant gas, which is harmful to both the human body and the environment. Therefore, this research focuses on NO2 detection and is committed to developing high-performance, low detection limit NO2 sensors. In this study, flower-like Au-loaded In2O3 was successfully fabricated using the hydrothermal method and the wet impregnation method. The morphological features and chemical compositions of the as-prepared samples were characterized using SEM, TEM, XRD and XPS. A variety of sensors were fabricated and the gas-sensing properties of sensors were investigated. The results indicate that the sensor based on 0.5 mol% Au/In2O3 shows a response value of 1624 to 1 ppm NO2 at 100 °C, which is 14 times that based on pure In2O3. Meanwhile, the detection limit of the sensor based on 0.5 mol% Au/In2O3 for NO2 is 10 ppb, and the response value is 10.4. In addition, the sensor based on 0.5 mol% Au/In2O3 also has high selectivity to NO2 among CO, CO2, H2, CH4, NH3, SO2 and H2S. Finally, the sensitization mechanism of Au/In2O3 was discussed, and the reasons for improving the performance of the sensor were analyzed. The above results and analysis demonstrate that the gas-sensing attributes of the sensor based on 0.5 mol% Au/In2O3 to NO2 improved remarkably; at the same time, it has been proved that the composite material has extensive potential in practical applications.