The xylene sensing performance of WO3 decorated anatase TiO2 nanoparticles as a sensing material for a gas sensor at a low operating temperature

Here, pristine and WO3 decorated TiO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by a one-step hydrothermal method without the use of a surfactant or template and used to fabricate gas sensors. Various techniques were employed for the characterization of the structure and morphology of the as-prepared products. The gas-sensing characteristics of the fabricated sensors were investigated for various concentrations of xylene at different temperatures. At a low operation temperature of 160 °C, the sensors possess an excellent gas response, selectivity, linear dependence, low detection limitation, and repeatability as well as long-term stability. In particular, for the high gas response of the 10.0 mol% WO3 decorated TiO2 nanoparticles based sensor, its response reaches 92.53 for 10 ppm xylene, which is much higher than that of the pristine TiO2 based sensor. And the detection limit is 1 ppm. Those values demonstrate the potential of using WO3 decorated TiO2 nanoparticles for xylene gas detection, particularly with low concentration xylene. Apart from this, the mechanism related to the advanced properties was also investigated and presented.