Synthesis of nanostructured iron-antimonate and its application in liquefied petroleum gas sensor

Abstract

In this paper we report the synthesis of iron-antimonate (FeSbO4) via co-precipitation method for the LPG sensing application. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) were used to confirm the crystal structure, crystallite size, surface morphology and elemental composition of the sensing material. Our XRD results confirm the single phase formation with tetragonal crystal structure of the synthesized material. Extremely broad reflections were observed indicating nanosized particle nature of the material obtained. The estimated value of average crystallite size was found 3 nm. Optical characterizations were done using UV-visible spectrophotometer and the value of energy band gap was found 3.8 eV by Tauc plot. Fine powder resulted from the chemical co-precipitation reaction was used to prepare the LPG sensing element in the form of pellet. The average sensor response of the FeSbO4 pellet was 2.2. LPG sensor based on iron-antimonate shows 97% reproducibility after one month, which illustrates the stability of the fabricated sensor. Electrical properties of iron-antimonate in air were also investigated. © 2012 VBRI Press.