Abstract
In the present work, acetone and ethanol sensing characteristics of wet chemically prepared magnesium zinc ferrite (MZFO) nano-particles have been investigated. X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy studies are carried out to know the phase formation behaviour and microstructure evolution of the synthesized particles. The gas sensing characteristics (response %, response time, recovery time, etc.) are estimated by varying the operating temperature of the sensor and concentrations of the test vapours. It is observed that the nanocrystalline MZFO-based sensor is more sensitive to acetone than ethanol. In addition, the sensor can detect even 10 ppm of acetone and ethanol vapours. The excellent repeatability of the sensing performances is verified by switching the sensor back and forth between air and test vapours.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Director, CSIR-CMERI for his kind permission to publish the paper. The support provided by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the help rendered by the scientific & technical staffs of Centre for Advanced Materials Processing (CAMP), CSIR-CMERI, Durgapur is sincerely acknowledged. M. Karmakar thanks BRNS (Project No. 2011/37P/14/BRNS) for supporting her fellowship. P. Das thanks DST, Govt of India for providing her the research fellowship. Dr. K. Mukherjee wishes to acknowledge Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India for providing him Inspire Faculty Award (Ref. DST/IFA12-CH-43).
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Karmakar, M., Das, P., Pal, M. et al. Acetone and ethanol sensing characteristics of magnesium zinc ferrite nano-particulate chemi-resistive sensor. J Mater Sci 49, 5766–5771 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8302-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8302-4