Sensitive and fast response ethanol chemical sensor based on as-grown Gd2O3 nanostructures

Abstract

Well crystalline gadolinium oxide (Gd2O3) nanostructures were grown by annealing the hydrothermally as-prepared nanostructures without using any template. Microscopic studies of Gd2O3 nanostructures were recorded along the [111] direction due to the clearly resolved interplanar distance d(222)∼0.31 nm of the cubic crystal structure Gd2O3. Sensing mechanism of Gd2O3 as efficient electron mediator for the detection of ethanol was explored. As-fabricated sensor demonstrated the high-sensitivity of ∼0.266 μAm/M/cm2 with low detection limit (∼52.2 μmol/L) and correlation coefficient (r2, 0.618). To the best of our knowledge, this was the first report for the detection of ethanol using as-grown (at 1000 °C) Gd2O3 nanostructures by simple and reliable I-V technique and rapid assessment of the reaction kinetics (in the order of seconds). The low cost of the starting reagents and the simplicity of the synthetic route made it a promising chemical sensor for the detection of various toxic analytes, which are not environmentally safe.