Novel nanosynthesis of In2O3 and its application as a resistive gas sensor for sevoflurane anesthetic

abstract

A novel non-aqueous sol-gel route for synthesizing pure indium oxide (In2O3) nanoparticles (NPs) using indium acetylacetonate and n-butylamine as the reactive solvent, under solvothermal conditions, is herein proposed. The samples were characterized by an advanced X-ray method, whole powder pattern modeling (WPPM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), showing the exclusive presence of pure In2O3. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) was used to determine the optical band gap (E-g) of the sample. Moreover, these investigations also revealed that the In2O3 nanoparticles are quasi-spherical in shape, with a diameter of around 7 nm as prepared and 9.5 nm after thermal treatment at 250 degrees C. In2O3 NPs worked as highly sensitive sensing interfaces to provide resistance changes during exposure to sevoflurane, a volatile anesthetic agent used in surgical wards. The developed sensor demonstrated a good response and fast response/recovery time towards very low concentrations of sevoflurane in air, suggesting a very attractive application as a real-time monitoring analyzer in a hospital environment.

keywords

METAL-OXIDE NANOPARTICLES; AGENT SEVOFLURANE; DIFLUOROMETHYL ETHER; SENSING PROPERTIES; NITROUS-OXIDE; OXYGEN; ISOFLURANE; NANOSTRUCTURES; NANOCRYSTALS; CRYSTALLINE

subject category

Materials Science

authors

Karmaoui, M; Leonardi, SG; Tobaldi, DM; Donato, N; Pullar, RC; Seabra, MP; Labrincha, JA; Neri, G

our authors

acknowledgements

Mohamed Karmaoui thanks Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT) for grant no. SFRH/BPD/74477/2010. D.M. Tobaldi is grateful to the ECO-SEE project (European Union's Seventh Framework Programme funding, grant agreement no. 609234). Mohamed Karmaoui thanks Prof. Artur Silva and Reda Ahmed for NMR measurements and their fruitful discussions (University of Aveiro, Portugal). Authors acknowledge the PEst-C/CTM/LA0011/2013 programme. M.P. Seabra and R.C. Pullar wish to thank the FCT Ciencia2008 programme for supporting this work.

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