Nanoparticles Assembled CdIn2O4 Spheres with High Sensing Properties towards n-Butanol

Abstract

Cd/In-glycerate spheres are synthesized through a simple solvothermal method. After thermal treatment, these Cd/In-glycerates can be converted into CdIn2O4 spheres. Many characterization methods were performed to reveal the microstructure and morphology of the CdIn2O4. It was found that pure CdIn2O4 phase was obtained for the Cd/In starting materials at ratios of 1:1.6. The CdIn2O4 spheres are composed by a large number of nanoparticles subunits. The CdIn2O4 sphere-based sensor exhibited a low detection limit (1 ppm), high response (81.20 to 500 ppm n-butanol), fast response (4 s) and recovery (10 s) time, good selectivity, excellent repeatability, and stability at 280 °C. Our findings highlight the possibility to develop a novel gas sensor based on CdIn2O4 for application in n-butanol detection with high performance.