Efficient detection of n-butanol vapor using Er3+ cations doped LaFeO3 nanofibers

For applications in environmental protection, industrial production, and personal health monitoring by breath exhalation, the sensitive and selective detection of n-butanol is of extreme importance. An n-butanol gas sensor has been developed utilizing LaFeO 3 nanofibers doped with Er 3+ by an electrospinning technique. Compared to the pure sample, the gas sensor shows an improved response of 58.97 to 30 ppm n-butanol, which was boosted by 5.99-fold due to the smaller average grain sizes (21.2 nm), porosity of the nanofiber, and abundant chemical-absorbed oxygen species (38.5%) at an Er doping level of 3 at%. It has excellent selectivity to n-butanol, a fast response/recovery time (17 s/27 s), superior stability during 30 days, and a low detection limit (100 ppb), which indicates that Er-doped LaFeO 3 nanofibers have excellent sensing capabilities for real-time n-butanol detection.