Xylene gas sensor based on Ni doped TiO2 bowl-like submicron particles with enhanced sensing performance

In this work, novel bowl-like TiO2 submicron scale particles were prepared via a simple electrospray technique combined with high-temperature calcination. The morphologies of the particles are easily controlled by changing the TBT content (16 wt%, 23 wt%, 30 wt%, 37 wt%) in the precursor solutions. To improve the xylene sensing properties of the TiO2, appropriate Ni amounts (0, 2, 4, and 6 mol% doping) were doped into the bowl-like particles. Among them, the 2 mol% Ni doped TiO2 bowl-like particles show the lowest optimum working temperature and highest response while demonstrating a fast response (9 s) and recovery speed (1.2 s) to 100 ppm xylene gas.