Au-Loaded Hierarchical MoO3 Hollow Spheres with Enhanced Gas-Sensing Performance for the Detection of BTX (Benzene, Toluene, And Xylene) And the Sensing Mechanism

Monodisperse, hierarchical α-MoO3 hollow spheres were fabricated using a facile template-free solvothermal method combined with subsequent calcination. Various quantities of Au nanoparticles (NPs) were deposited on the α-MoO3 hollow spheres to construct hybrid nanomaterials for chemical gas sensors and their BTX sensing properties were investigated. The 2.04 wt % Au-loaded α-MoO3 sensor can detect BTX effectively at 250 °C, especially, its responses to 100 ppm toluene and xylene are 17.5 and 22.1, respectively, which are 4.6 and 3.9 times higher than those of pure α-MoO3 hollow spheres at 290 °C. Besides, Au loading decreased the response times to toluene and xylene from 19 and 6 s to 1.6 and 2 s, respectively, lowered the working temperature from 290 to 250 °C as compared with those of pure α-MoO3. The surface status of Au/α-MoO3 hollow spheres before and after contacting with toluene at 250 °C was analyzed through XPS technique. Possible oxidization product of toluene was confirmed by GC for the first time. The gas-sensing mechanism of the Au/α-MoO3 was speculated as the oxidation of toluene to water and carbon dioxide by chemisorbed oxygen and lattice oxygen. The possible reason related with improved gas-sensing properties of the Au-functionalized α-MoO3 was discussed.