Laser-generated BiVO4 colloidal particles with tailoring size and native oxygen defect for highly efficient gas sensing

Xiaokang Qiao; Youxun Xu; Kai Yang; Can Li; Hongqiang Wang; Lichao Jia

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122471

Laser-generated BiVO₄ colloidal particles with tailoring size and native oxygen defect for highly efficient gas sensing

J Hazard Mater. 2020 Jun 15:392:122471. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122471. Epub 2020 Mar 5.

Authors

Xiaokang Qiao¹, Youxun Xu², Kai Yang¹, Can Li¹, Hongqiang Wang³, Lichao Jia⁴

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices, Shaanxi Engineering Lab. for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, 620 West Chang'an Street, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710119, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene, Xi'an, 710072, PR China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, Center for Nano Energy Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University and Shaanxi Joint Laboratory of Graphene, Xi'an, 710072, PR China. Electronic address: hongqiang.wang@nwpu.edu.cn.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Applied Surface and Colloid Chemistry, National Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Key Laboratory for Advanced Energy Devices, Shaanxi Engineering Lab. for Advanced Energy Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shaanxi Normal University, 620 West Chang'an Street, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710119, China. Electronic address: lichaojia@snnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 32208310
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.122471

Abstract

To alleviate the poor sensing performance of BiVO₄, developing new strategies for the fabrication of unique device with improved sensing properties is very necessary and has great practical significance. In this work, size-tailored and uniform black BiVO₄ colloids with abundant oxygen vacancy were synthesized by a unique method of pulsed laser irradiation of colloidal nanoparticles (PLICN). The corresponding laser irradiation effects on the sensing properties are comparatively investigated. The results indicate that the BiVO₄ nanospheres with average size of 50 nm shows best sensing properties with high sensitivity, superior selectivity, low detection limit (44 ppb) to H₂S at low working temperature (75 °C). Its sensing response is over 4 times higher when comparing with that of the raw material. Further investigation manifests that laser irradiation could induce quantity of the oxygen vacancy and decrease the resistance of the sensing device, which is mainly responsible for the enhanced sensing performance. Moreover, the density functional theories (DFT) calculations suggest that the oxygen vacancies can greatly decrease the surface absorption energy with enhanced H₂S absorption capability on BiVO₄ surface and lower the bader charger transfer from the absorbed H₂S molecules to the BiVO₄, thus enabling the implementation for the enhanced gas-sensing properties.

Keywords: Bismuth vanadate; Gas sensor; Hydrogen sulfide; Nanosphere; Pulsed laser irradiation.