Designed synthesis of Fe-doped CoSn(OH)6 nanocubes with enhanced N-butyl alcohol gas sensing properties

Here, we reported the synthesis of pure CoSn(OH)6 and Fe-doped CoSn(OH)6 nanocubes for gas sensing application by hydrothermal method. The extensive characterizations determined the crystal structure, morphology and chemical composition of the samples, such as, XRD, SEM, XPS, etc. Compared with the pure CoSn(OH)6, the gas sensing performance of 5Fe-CoSn(OH)6 to N-butyl alcohol is improved significantly. The 5Fe-CoSn(OH)6 based sensor presented high gas response of 60.309 toward 30 ppm N-butyl alcohol at relatively low operating temperature of 200 °C. Moreover, the 5Fe-CoSn(OH)6 based sensor also exhibited excellent stability, selectivity and humidity resistance to N-butyl alcohol. The gas sensing properties of 5Fe-CoSn(OH)6 is greatly improved due to the large specific surface area, narrow band gap, sufficient oxygen vacancies and quickly separation efficiency of electrons-hole pairs. The results demonstrate that the doping of Fe3+ is an effective way to improve the gas sensing properties of CoSn(OH)6 sensors to detect N-butyl alcohol.