High performance ethanol and acetone gas sensor based nanocrystalline MnCo2O4 using clad-modified fiber optic gas sensor

Abstract Herein, we report a facile, low-cost and one-step hydrothermal approach for the synthesis of MnCo 2 O 4 (MCO) nanoparticles without any post annealing treatment. The crystalline phase, the morphology, and the valences of the elements in the obtained samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray photoelectron spectrometry (XPS) and Energy dispersive spectra (EDS) analysis, respectively. XRD and TEM results suggest that as synthesized MnCo 2 O 4 have spinel cubic structure with spherical shaped morphology. The Nitrogen adsorption–desorption analysis indicates that the BET surface area is calculated to be 65.3 m 2 /g and the pore size distribution is mostly centered at 28 nm, which is in good agreement with the grain size calculated from XRD results. Gas sensing properties of nanocrystalline MnCo 2 O 4 clad – modified fiber optic sensor is reported for ethanol and acetone gasses, at room temperature. The results showed that MnCo 2 O 4 has high sensitivity to ethanol gas, fast response and recovery time than compared to acetone gas. The possible gas sensing mechanism is also proposed in detail.