Preparation of CO gas sensor from WO3 nanomaterial synthesized via sol-gel method followed by hydrothermal process

Abstract

CO gas sensor chips have been successfully prepared from WO3 nanomaterial synthesized using sol-gel method followed by hydrothermal process at various temperatures of 160 °C, 180 °C and 200 °C for 12 hours. The sensor preparation is necessary to prevent human from being poisoned by CO gas. The sample hydrothermally processed at 160 °C showed the most sensitive response to CO gas because it had the highest active surface area of 58.5 m2g−1 based on BET analysis. The sensitivity of the sensor material to CO gas increased with the increasing of CO gas concentrations of 10, 100, 250 and 500 ppm and operating temperatures of 30 °C, 50 °C and 100 °C. In this experiment, the morphology and structure of materials before and after CO gas exposure were analyzed and compared using XRD and SEM instruments. The research results highlighted the potential of WO3 material as a CO gas sensor, comparable with other semiconductor materials such as ZnO, TiO2 and SnO2.