The enhanced alcohol-sensing response of ultrathin WO3 nanoplates

Chemical sensors based on semiconducting metal oxide nanocrystals are of academic and practical significance in industrial processing and environment-related applications. Novel alcohol response sensors using two-dimensional WO3 nanoplates as active elements have been investigated in this paper. Single-crystalline WO3 nanoplates were synthesized through a topochemical approach on the basis of intercalation chemistry (Chen et al 2008 Small 4 1813). The as-obtained WO3 nanoplate pastes were coated on the surface of an Al2O3 ceramic microtube with four Pt electrodes to measure their alcohol-sensing properties. The results show that the WO3 nanoplate sensors are highly sensitive to alcohols (e.g., methanol, ethanol, isopropanol and butanol) at moderate operating temperatures (260-360 degrees C). For butanol, the WO3 nanoplate sensors have a sensitivity of 31 at 2 ppm and 161 at 100 ppm, operating at 300 degrees C. For other alcohols, WO3 nanoplate sensors also show high sensitivities: 33 for methanol at 300 ppm, 70 for ethanol at 200 ppm, and 75 for isopropanol at 200 ppm. The response and recovery times of the WO3 nanoplate sensors are less than 15 s for all the test alcohols. A good linear relationship between the sensitivity and alcohol concentrations has been observed in the range of 2-300 ppm, whereas the WO3 nanoparticle sensors have not shown such a linear relationship. The sensitivities of the WO3 nanoplate sensors decrease and their response times become short when the operating temperatures increase. The enhanced alcohol-sensing performance could be attributed to the ultrathin platelike morphology, the high crystallinity and the loosely assembling structure of the WO3 nanoplates, due to the advantages of the effective adsorption and rapid diffusion of the alcohol molecules.