Preparation of Au nanoparticles-loaded spinel-structured high entropy oxides for acetone detection

Chemiresistive gas sensors based on metal oxides hold a great potential for gas monitoring applications, but applications of these sensors are hindered by inadequate material properties for traditional metal oxides. Herein, we demonstrated the preparation of Au nanoparticles (NPs)-loaded spinel-structured high entropy oxides (Au-HEO) for acetone sensing applications, where Au-HEO was prepared by deposition of Au NPs onto the surface of HEO with the composition of (FeCoCrNiZn) 3 O 4 obtained by glycine-assisted sol-gel method. Experimentally, Au-HEO sensor shows the response value of 1.49 toward 100 ppm acetone at 180 °C, good repeatability and good selectivity. Notably, the Au-HEO sensor not only displays low resistance, compared to traditional metal oxides, but also shows enhanced sensitivity toward acetone compared to pristine HEO. This study paves the way for designing and developing highly efficient functional materials for gas sensing applications.