Gas sensing properties of coral-like Bi0.5K0.5TiO3 powders synthesized by metal-organic decomposition

Coral-like Bi0.5K0.5TiO3 (BKT) powders are synthesized by metal-organic decomposition and characterized by x-ray diffraction and field-emission scanning electron microscopy. The gas sensing properties of coral-like BKT powders are investigated by exposing them to various gases at different temperatures. At 360 °C, the powders exhibit a high response to ethanol (C2H5OH), are less sensitive to acetone (CH3COCH3) and methanol (CH3OH), and totally insensitive to hydrogen (H2), carbon monoxide (CO), ammonium (NH3) and acetylene (C2H2). The coral-like BKT powders are of high response value to 500 ppm C2H5OH, and the corresponding response/recovery times are 8 and 12 s, respectively. The results reveal that the coral-like BKT powders, which are a traditional ferroelectric material, are also sensitive to some reducing gases, and can also be employed to fabricate integrative (piezoelectric-gas) sensors.