Highly sensitive triethylamine sensor based on MOF-derived bimetallic NiO-SnO2 nanomaterials

In this work, an uncomplicated solvothermal method was used to synthesize NiO-SnO 2 gas sensing materials derived from bimetallic MOFs. The influence of MOF derived NiO-SnO 2 with different amount of Ni on the gas sensing performance of triethylamine (TEA) was systematically evaluated. The results showed that the MOF derived 0.5 mol% NiO-SnO 2 based gas sensor exhibited the best gas sensing performance. The response to TEA gas of the sensor reached 124.5 to 50 ppm at 170 °C, which was 1.5 times that of SnO 2 sensor (83). Compared with SnO 2 sensor at 190 °C, its operating temperature was reduced by 20 °C. Moreover, the MOF derived 0.5 mol% NiO-SnO 2 sensor also performed outstanding selectivity towards TEA, with a response that is 3.1–49.8 times higher than other target gases. The MOF derived NiO-SnO 2 nanomaterials were also conducted X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV–visible absorption spectra analysis. The results demonstrated that an increase in specific surface area, abundant oxygen vacancies, a decrease in forbidden bandwidth, and the formation of p-n heterojunctions were significant factors in improving the gas sensing performance of MOF derived NiO-SnO 2 nanomaterials.