A combined experimental and theoretical study of composite SnO2-BiVO4 for selective NO2 sensing

Tin oxide-bismuth vanadate heterostructures (SnO2-BiVO4) exhibit considerably enhanced surface-exposed edge sites with an abundance of the dangling bond due to their intrinsic crystallographic anisotropy. Its high chemical reactivity and chemisorption capabilities make it ideal for high-performance electrochemical sensing. In this paper, Tin oxide-bismuth vanadate heterostructures (SnO2-BiVO4) were synthesized using a simple hydrothermal synthesis method and employed as room temperature NO2 sensor. X-ray diffractometers (XRD), scanning electron microscopes (SEM), and transmission electron microscopes. (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS) and ultraviolet-visible spectrometer (UV-vis) were used to examine the heterogeneous structure of as-synthesized SnO2-BiVO4. The as-prepared SnO2-BiVO4 (1:1) revealed optimal gas-sensing performance toward 0.1 ppm-1 ppm NO2 at a relatively low optimal operating temperature (298 K), including fast response, fast recovery, high sensitivity and good reproducibility. The experimental results demonstrated that the as-synthesized SnO2-BiVO4 has enormous future potential for real-time detection of NO2 traces at room temperature. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations were analyzed to reveal the underlying principles behind the experimentally observed improvement.

Automated summary

This study successfully synthesized tin oxide-bismuth vanadate heterostructures using a simple hydrothermal synthesis method and demonstrated their potential for real-time detection of NO2 traces at room temperature.