Heterostructure engineering of In2O3/ErVO4 hairy curd for high-performance TEA gas sensors

Triethylamine (TEA) is a mephitic volatile organic compound, which has huge damage to human body. Therefore, the development of gas sensitive materials for the effective detection of TEA has important application value. In this paper, In2O3, ErVO4 and In2O3/ErVO4 composite samples were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method. The In2O3/ErVO4 composite of In2O3 and ErVO4 has a spherical structure with a rough surface, and forms a variety of porous structures, which effectively increases the specific surface area of the composite (58.9551 m2/g), thereby improving the gas sensitivity to TEA. In2O3/ErVO4 composites can achieve a higher response to 100 ppm TEA (S=54.73), have a lower optimal operating temperature (250 °C) compared with In2O3 pure samples, and have a faster recovery time (52 s) compared with ErVO4 pure samples. In addition, In2O3/ErVO4 sensors also achieve good selectivity, excellent moisture resistance, long-term stability. The microstructure of the sample was significantly changed by ErVO4 recombination. These alterations include an increase in specific surface area, a decrease in particle size, an increase in the utilization of the sensitive body, an increase in the proportion of vacancy oxygen, a decrease in the optical band gap, and an increase in electron transport efficiency. These results show that the combination of ErVO4 and In2O3 to construct heterojunction can achieve excellent sensor for TEA gas detection.