Abstract
Novel materials with nanostructures are effective in controlling the physical properties needed for specific applications. The use of active and sensing materials is increasing in many applications, such as gas sensing. In the present work, we attempted to synthesize incorporated Cu2+ into the SnO2 matrix as CuxSn1−xO2 nanocomposite using a cost-effective precursor and method. It was observed that, at low concentrations of copper precursor, only SnO2 phase could be detected by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The distribution of Cu in the SnO2 matrix was further measured by elemental analysis of energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping and X-ray fluorescence (XRF). At high copper concentration, a separated monoclinic phase of CuO was formed (noted here as CuO/SnO2). The average crystallite size was slightly reduced from 5.9 nm to 4.7 nm with low doping of 0.00–5.00% Cu but increased up to 15.0 nm at high doping of 10.00% Cu upon the formation of separated SnO2 and CuO phases. The formation of Cu–SnO2 or CuO phases at low and high concentrations was also observed by photoluminescent spectra. Here, only the emission peak of SnO2 with a slight blueshift was recorded at low concentrations, while only the CuO emission peak was recorded at high concentration. The effect of Cu concentration on the sensing properties of SnO2 toward methane (CH4) gas was also investigated. It was found that the sensor embedded with 2.00% Cu exhibited an excellent sensitivity of 69.0 at 350 °C and a short response–recovery time compared with the other sensors reported here. The sensing mechanism of CuxSn1−xO2 and CuO/SnO2 is thus proposed based on Cu incorporation.
Highlights
Improvement of binary oxide nanomaterials to detect gas with high sensitivity and precise limitation requires creative materials
Only the emission peak of SnO2 with a slight blueshift was recorded at low concentrations, while only the CuO emission peak was recorded at high concentration
The sensing mechanism of Cux Sn1−x O2 and CuO/SnO2 is proposed based on Cu incorporation
Summary
Improvement of binary oxide nanomaterials to detect gas with high sensitivity and precise limitation requires creative materials. Several studies have focused on the effect of doping materials or nanoadditives of noble metals to improve the sensing properties of SnO2 toward CH4. Wagner et al [10] and Cabot et al [11] reported an improvement in the sensing properties of SnO2 upon the functionalization with Pd, with the sensitivity increasing up to 20/0.66% at 400 ◦ C [10]. We attempted to achieve high sensitivity of the SnO2 nanostructure toward CH4 using metallic doping with cost-effective materials and a cheap preparation method. To this end, we synthesized a developed nanomaterial based on the incorporation of Cu2+ in the matrix of SnO2.
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