Synthesis and Characterization of Zn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 Nanoparticles for Gas Sensing Applications

Abstract

In this study, Zn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles were synthesized by solution combustion method. The solution combustion method is a convenient, chief, environment friendly, and capable for the synthesis of high-quality nanomaterials. As prepared Zn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 were annealed at 800 °C. The electrical, thermal, structural, magnetic, morphological and gas sensing properties of the synthesised materials has been studied in details. The spinel crystal structure was confirmed from X-ray diffraction, with average crystalline size of 37 nm. The elemental compositions in the synthesized powder were estimated using EDX spectra. The magnetic nature of the material was confirmed from vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), conducted at room temperature with highest applied field of 15 KOe and it shows ferromagnetic behaviour. The nearly spherical particles shapes were observed from TEM and FESEM images. The fabricated thick films of the synthesised material were exposed to various gases like NH3, Cl2, H2, CO2 and LPG at different temperatures. It was observed that the gas sensing responses depends on their operating temperature. Additionally, the sensor has a quick response time and a speedy recovery time. The gas sensing results demonstrated that Zn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 is a novel gas sensor material with good sensitivity and selectivity to LPG compared to other gases. The probable LPG gas sensing mechanism is schematically represented in this paper. This study provides, Zn0.5Co0.5Fe2O4 synthesised using low-cost solution combustion technique has a great potential in future gas sensing fields.