Amorphous Europium Hexaboride: A Potential Room Temperature Formaldehyde Sensing Material

Amorphous EuB6 was successfully prepared having a high specific surface area (221.3 m(2) g(-1)) via the reaction between EuCl3 and B2H6 in the presence of liquid plasma in an ionic liquid environment. The material exhibits an immediate, lasting, and highly selective response toward formaldehyde at room temperature with a detection limit of 50 ppb. The good sensing performance of the amorphous EuB6 material is attributed to the strong interaction between formaldehyde and the increased number of accessible electron-rich surface Eu sites.