Synthesis of Ba-doped porous LaFeO_(3) microspheres with perovskite structure for rapid detection of ethanol gas

In this work,porous La_(1-x)Ba_(x)FeO_(3)(x=0.01,0.02,0.03,0.04 and 0.05) microspheres of the orthorhombic perovskite phase were prepared by an environment-friendly one-step hydrothermal method with a series of characterization of the six sensing nanomaterials.Characterization results show that their grain size is between 21.2 and 23.2 nm,and the grain growth is inhibited with the increase in Ba-doping concentration.The samples are all spherical with a diameter of about 10 μm,and the surface is very rough.By the gas sensing study of the samples,the results show that the La_(1-x)Ba_(x)FeO_(3) sensor exhibits a fairly high response to the ethanol gas.In particular,the La_(1-x)Ba_(x)FeO_(3) microspheres with a Ba-doping concentration of 2 mol% showed not only a significant improvement in sensitivity but also a rather rapid response recovery time compared to the undoped samples,demonstrating the superiority as an ethanol sensing nanomaterial.More importantly,the optimum operating temperature of La0.98Ba0.02FeO_(3) is only 200℃,while that of the pure LaFeO_(3) is 260℃.The Ba-doped porous microspheres prepared are a high-performance sensing material capable of rapid and accurate detection of ethanol.