Humidity Effect on Low-Temperature NH₃ Sensing Behavior of In₂O₃/rGO Composites under UV Activation

Abstract

The nature of the constituent components of composite materials can significantly affect the character of their interaction with the gas phase. In this work, nanocrystalline In2O3 was synthesized by the chemical precipitation method and was modified using reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The obtained composites were characterized by several analysis techniques—XRD, TEM, SEM, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, XPS, TGA, and DRIFTS. The XPS and FTIR and Raman spectroscopy results suggested the formation of interfacial contact between In2O3 and rGO. The results of the gas sensor’s properties showed that additional UV illumination led to a decrease in resistance and an increase in sensor response at room temperature. However, the presence of humidity at room temperature led to the disappearance of the response for pure In2O3, while for the composites, an inversion of the sensor response toward ammonia was observed. The main reason may have been the formation of NH4NO3 intermediates with further hydrolysis and decomposition under light illumination with the formation of nitrite and nitrate species. The presence of these species was verified by in situ DRIFT spectroscopy. Their strong electron-accepting properties lead to an increase in resistance, which possibly affected the sensor signal’s inversion.

Keywords

• metal oxide gas sensor
• nanocrystalline indium oxide
• reduced graphene oxide
• UV activation
• humidity effect
• low temperature detection