High performance ethanol and acetone gas sensor based nanocrystalline MnCo2O4 using clad-modified fiber optic gas sensor

Herein, we report a facile, low-cost and one-step hydrothermal approach for the synthesis of MnCo2O4 (MCO) nanoparticles without any post annealing treatment. The crystalline phase, the morphology, and the valences of the elements in the obtained samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) and Energy dispersive spectra (EDS) analysis, respectively. XRD and TEM results suggest that as synthesized MnCo2O4 have spinel cubic structure with spherical shaped morphology. The Nitrogen adsorption desorption analysis indicates that the BET surface area is calculated to be 65.3 m(2)/g and the pore size distribution is mostly centered at 28 nm, which is in good agreement with the grain size calculated from XRD results. Gas sensing properties of nanocrystalline MnCo2O4 clad modified fiber optic sensor is reported for ethanol and acetone gasses, at room temperature. The results showed that MnCo2O4 has high sensitivity to ethanol gas, fast response and recovery time than compared to acetone gas. The possible gas sensing mechanism is also proposed in detail.