Fe2O3 nanoparticles-decorated MoO3 nanobelts for enhanced chemiresistive gas sensing

In this study, we report the fabrication of high-performance gas sensor based on a heterojunction structure in which Fe2O3 nanoparticles were used to decorate MoO3 nanobelts. The pure MoO3 nanobelts exhibited a response to 100 parts per million (ppm) of xylene (ratio of resistance to air and gas = 9.08), with no obviously lower cross-responses to 100 ppm of ethanol, acetone, benzene, toluene, methanol and butanol. Compared with pristine MoO3 nanobelts, Fe2O3 nanoparticles decorated nanobelts demonstrated about 2-4 times higher response toward xylene. The enhanced sensing properties of Fe2O3 nanoparticles-decorated MoO3 heterostructured nanobelts can be attributed to the formation of heterojunction between Fe2O3 and MoO3. These results, combined with other reported literature, indicate that controlled engineering of surface loading/decorating is an effective strategy for designing highly sensitive and selective semiconducting metal oxide based gas sensors. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.