Synthesis of Ce-doped In2O3 nanostructure for gas sensor applications

•The morphology, microstructure, and gas-sensing properties of Ce-doped In2O3 porous nanospheres have been investigated.•Ce-doped In2O3 based sensors exhibit significantly enhanced gas-sensing performance to glycol gas.•The possible reasons for enhanced sensing properties of as-prepared Ce-doped In2O3 sensors have been proposed.•It is expected that hierarchical Ce-doped In2O3 porous nanospheres with excellent gas-sensing performance is a promising functional material to actual application in glycol detection.

Nanostructured materials with advantages in large surface-to-volume ratio and high specific surface area have demonstrated great potential in improving the gas sensing property because these structural and morphology features provide improved surface sensing activities. In this work, porous Ce-doped In2O3 nanospheres have been successfully prepared using a facile hydrothermal method, and their morphology, microstructure, and gas-sensing properties were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and gas sensing testing (GST). Ce doping not only enhances the response value and reduces response-recovery time but also lowers the operating temperature and retains good stability. The possible reasons for enhanced sensing properties of as-prepared Ce-doped In2O3 sensors were also proposed.