Experimental performance evaluation of non-toxic metal oxide synthesized via solid-state reaction for room temperature-sensing applications

Abstract

An organized analysis of a metal oxide (BaTiO₃) synthesized via solid-state reaction coated on FTO (fluorine-doped tin oxide) substrate for multiple applications is attentively done. The dominant characteristic (110) peak plane authenticates the tetragonal structure formation (structural properties). The bandgap calculated (tauc’s plot) from the absorbance spectrum is 3.2 eV. The experimental evaluation of the fabricated gas sensor was done using a gas sensing setup for the toxic gases with carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH₄). The response time (~1.86 s (5 ppm), 2.74 s (~10 ppm)) and the recovery time (~8.68 s (5 ppm), ~5.23 s (10 ppm)) under CO were found to be better compared with CH₄. The fabricated gas sensor showed ~11.5% (5 ppm) and ~16.2% (10 ppm) of sensor response to CO gas, higher than CH₄. In addition, the fabricated sensor’s performance is extended to acceleration application. An output voltage of ~1.16 V at a resonant frequency of 10 Hz is obtained. The fabricated BaTiO₃ sensor is used to explore multifunctional sensing properties, i.e., to detect and sense toxic gases (CO and CH₄), and acceleration of both of these sensing properties work well together for the mine industry. Only a few literature use BaTiO₃ for multifunctional sensing applications.