High triethylamine-sensing properties of NiO/SnO2 hollow sphere P-N heterojunction sensors

Abstract Triethylamine (TEA) gas sensor with high response and selectivity was fabricated successfully with PN heterojunction consisted of n-type SnO 2 hollow spheres and p-type NiO nanoparticles. SnO 2 hollow spheres were synthesized by a template-assisted hydrothermal method. The NiO/SnO 2 P–N junction was formed by depositing NiO nanoparticles onto the surface of SnO 2 hollow sphere sensors via a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) process. The response of NiO/SnO 2 sensor is up to 48.6 when exposed to 10 ppm TEA gas, which is much higher than that of pristine SnO 2 hollow spheres and most of other reported TEA sensors. The detection limit can also be as low as 2 ppm-level. Moreover, the optimal operating temperature is down to 220 °C, and 40 °C lower than that of the pristine SnO 2 hollow sphere sensor. These good sensing performances mainly attribute to the formation of depletion layer at the P–N junction interface in the NiO/SnO 2 sensor, which makes great variation of resistance in air and TEA gas. Thus, the combination of n-type SnO 2 hollow spheres and p-type NiO nanoparticles provides an effective strategy to design new TEA gas sensors.

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