Facile synthesis of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles for high-performance CO gas sensor

•We have demonstrated a facile method to prepare Fe2O3 nanoparticles.•The gas sensing properties of α-Fe2O3 have been invested.•The results show potential application of α-Fe2O3 NPs for CO sensors in environmental monitoring.

Iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared via a simple hydrothermal method for high performance CO gas sensor. The synthesized α-Fe2O3 NPs were characterized by X-ray diffraction, nitrogen adsorption/desorption isotherm, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and selected area electron diffraction (SAED). The SEM, TEM results revealed that obtained α-Fe2O3 particles had a peanut-like geometry with hemispherical ends. The response of the α-Fe2O3 NPs based sensor to carbon monoxide (CO) and various concentrations of other gases were measured at different temperatures. It found that the sensor based on the peanut-like α-Fe2O3 NPs exhibited high response, fast response–recovery, and good selectivity to CO at 300 °C. The experimental results clearly demonstrated the potential application of α-Fe2O3 NPs as a good sensing material in the fabrication of CO sensor.

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