Ppb-Level Butanone Sensor Based on Porous Spherical NiO and the Influence of Silver Modification

Abstract In this work, porous spherical UG-NiO nanomaterials is synthesized through a one-step hydrothermal process, and the samples are modified with precious metal silver (Ag) for ppb-level detection to butanone. The gas-sensitive test results show that the response of UG -NIO to 100 ppm of 2-butanone is 4 times that of U-NiO, and the response of modified 3.9% Ag@UG-NiO to 100 ppm butanone is 3.1 times than that of UG-NiO. And both synthetic UG-NiO and Ag@UG -NiO can detect 2-butanone at ppb level. Meanwhile, synthetic samples are characterized via X-ray diffraction measurements (XRD), the energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Finally, the response mechanism is further explained by DFT.