Starfish-like Zn doped In2O3 dendritic structure for superior triethylamine sensing by the facile co-precipitation method

Zn-doped In2O3 starfish-like dendritic structures (IZx, x=0, 1, 3, 5) were successfully synthesized by a facile coprecipitation method and applied for triethylamine (TEA) sensing. The influence of Zn addition on the phase structure, microstructure, chemical composition and surface state of IZx sensor was characterized by XRD, Raman, UV-vis, SEM, TEM, XPS and BET analyses. TEA-sensing performance was measured by gas-sensing test system at 40% humidity. Results show that the typical IZ3 sensor has a high response of 156.2 and short response/recovery times of 6 s/165 s after exposure to 5 ppm TEA at optimal temperature of 140 degrees C. It also exhibits a low detection limit of 0.1 ppm, excellent selectivity to TEA, and long-term stability. The excellent TEAsensing ability of IZx-based sensors may be attributed to their unique morphology with large specific surface area, suitable internal defects and band gap induced by Zn-doping. Therefore, Zn-doped In2O3 sensors have potential applications in actual TEA-detection.