Hydrothermal Synthesis of CeO(2)-SnO(2) Nanoflowers for Improving Triethylamine Gas Sensing Property

Developing the triethylamine sensor with excellent sensitivity and selectivity is important for detecting the triethylamine concentration change in the environment. In this work, flower-like CeO(2)-SnO(2) composites with different contents of CeO(2) were successfully synthesized by the one-step hydrothermal reaction. Some characterization methods were used to research the morphology and structure of the samples. Gas-sensing performance of the CeO(2)-SnO(2) gas sensor was also studied and the results show that the flower-like CeO(2)-SnO(2) composite showed an enhanced gas-sensing property to triethylamine compared to that of pure SnO(2). The response value of the 5 wt.% CeO(2) content composite based sensor to 200 ppm triethylamine under the optimum working temperature (310 °C) is approximately 3.8 times higher than pure SnO(2). In addition, CeO(2)-SnO(2) composite is also significantly more selective for triethylamine than pure SnO(2) and has better linearity over a wide range of triethylamine concentrations. The improved gas-sensing mechanism of the composites toward triethylamine was also carefully discussed.