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Language: English

Conflict of Interest: In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Publication history: Received October 4, 2009
Accepted November 17, 2009

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Effect of synthesis condition and annealing on the sensitivity and stability of gas sensors made of Zn-doped γ-Fe2O3 particles

Taeyang Kim^† Andrew Sharp¹ Bing Guo¹

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Military Academy, Seoul, Korea ¹Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering, March 2010, 27(3), 1003-1009(7), 10.1007/s11814-010-0154-2

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Abstract

Gas sensors made of flame-synthesized Zn-doped γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles were found to have high sensitivity and high aging resistance. Zinc-doped γ-Fe2O3 nanoparticles and microparticles were synthesized by flame spray pyrolysis (FSP). Gas sensors were fabricated with as-synthesized particles, and with particles that had been annealed. The sensors’ response to acetone vapor and H2 was measured as fabricated, and measured again after the sensors were_x000D_ aged for three days. The sensors made from as-synthesized particles showed a gas sensing sensitivity 20 times higher than the literature value. However, sensors made of microparticles lost their sensing ability after three days of aging; sensors made of nanoparticles retained their gas sensing capability after aging. Sensors made of annealed particles did not have significant gas sensing capabilities. Analysis using the William and Hall method showed that the microstrains_x000D_ decreased significantly in both H2/O2 and H2/Air flame synthesized particles after annealing. The results showed that sensors made of flame-synthesized particles have much higher sensitivity than sensors made of particles previously reported. Especially, sensors made of flame-synthesized nanoparticles are resistant towards aging. This aging resistance may be attributed to the particles’ ability to retain their microstrains.

Keywords

Flame Spray Pyrolysis (FSP) Gas Sensing Sensitivity Aging Microstrains

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