Facile synthesis benzene sensor based on V2O5-doped SnO2 nanofibers

In this study, a series of undoped and V2O5-doped SnO2 nanofibers were synthesized via the electrospinning technique. The morphological and microstructural properties of these nanofibers have been characterized by XRD (X-ray diffraction), FESEM (field emission scanning electron microscopy), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The gas sensing properties of the undoped and V2O5-doped SnO2 (V2O5/SnO2 = 0.5 mol%, 1 mol%, 2.5 mol% and 5 mol%) samples were tested for various gases. The sensor based on the S2 sample (V2O5/SnO2 = 1 mol%) exhibits the largest response toward 25 ppm benzene among these undoped and doped SnO2 nanofibers, exhibiting a response of about 6.25 to 25 ppm benzene, which is almost 3.2 times higher than that of the sensor based on pure SnO2 nanofibers at the optimum operating temperature. The response and recovery time to achieve 25 ppm benzene were about 3 s and 40 s, respectively. These results indicate that the benzene sensors based on the S2 sample exhibit high response, good repeatability and quick response-recovery kinetics.