(360f) Electro-Spun ZnMoO4/ZnCo2O4 Nanofibers-Based Gas Sensor for Ppb-Level n-Butanol Detection

1-Butanol, a volatile organic compound (VOC) is a common solvent used in industry that has the potential to find its way into residential areas through its usage in paints, pesticides, and cosmetics. Effects of inhaling high concentrations of 1-butanol include dizziness, headache, drowsiness, and dermatitis. Metal oxide gas sensors have been chosen as one of the economical, fast, and reliable solutions for Volatile organic compound (VOC) gas testing. The metal oxide chosen was ZnCo₂O₄ spinel and was electro-spun into nanofibers,1D nanomaterials used to enhance sensitivity and response. More research is being done into the p-type, to match their n-type metal oxide counterparts and spinels are a sub-branch within some of the p-type metal oxides. Low response to gases is the major problem within p-type gas sensors and p-n heterojunctions were used to improve by adding ZnMoO₄ to the p-type spinel. Characterization of the morphology was done by Scanning an electron microscope which showed nanofibers and x-ray diffraction confirmed the presence of the spinel in all the material. High Resolution-XPS showed that mixing ZnMoO₄ and ZnCo₂O₄ improved surface science to enhance 1-butanol sensing. Gas testing using air as the diluting medium showed the best selectivity and a response of 4.94 to 10 ppm was achieved. The lowest concentration tested was 250 ppb with a response of 0.124. Using p-type metal oxide sensors provides diversity to the material used for 1-butanol gas sensing. Ppb gas sensing allows fast detection of tiny amounts of 1butanol in the environment below the human olfaction limit of around 0.8 ppm.