Engineering of Highly Susceptible Paramagnetic Nanostructures of Gd2S3:Eu3+: Potentially an Efficient Material for Room Temperature Gas Sensing Applications

Abstract

This research papers throws light into the compositional, morphological and structural properties of novel nanoparticles of Gd2S3:Eu3+ synthesized by a simple co-precipitation technique. Furthermore, we also prognosticate that this material could be useful for gas sensing applications at room temperature. Nanostructures formulation by this method resulted in the formation of orthorhombic crystal structure with primitive lattice having space group Pnma. The material characterizations are performed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), thermo-gravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis (TGA/DTA) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The calculated crystallite sizes are ~ 2-5 nm and are in well accordance with the HRTEM results. EDX result confirms the presence and homogeneous distribution of Gd and Eu throughout the nanoparticle. The prepared nanoparticles exhibit strong paramagnetic nature with paramagnetic term, susceptibility c = 8.2 ´ 10-5 emg/g Gauss. TGA/DTA analysis shows 27 % weight loss with rise in temperature. The gas sensing capability of the prepared Gd2S3:Eu3+ magnetic nanoparticles are investigated using the amperometric method. These nanoparticles show good I-V characteristics with ideal semiconducting nature at room temperature with and without ammonia dose. The observed room temperature sensitivity with increasing dose of ammonia indicates applicability of Gd2S3 nanoparticles as room temperature ammonia sensors.

Keywords

• Gd2S3:Eu3+ Magnetic nanomaterials
• Paramagnetic
• Ammonia sensors