One-step hydrothermal preparation of Ce-doped MoO3 nanobelts with enhanced gas sensing properties

Rare earth ions are considered as the ideal dopants to modify the crystal structure, electronics structure, and gas sensing performance of metal oxides semiconductors. In this paper, Ce-doped MoO3 nanobelts were successfully synthesized via a one-step hydrothermal method. The morphology and microstructure were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS). FESEM images demonstrate that the as-prepared products are uniform nanobelts with length of about 20 mm and width of 100-200 nm. EDS, XRD, and XPS spectroscopy show that Ce atoms were uniformly distributed in the crystal structure of MoO3 nanobelts. In comparison with pure samples, Ce-doped MoO3 nanobelts exhibited superior trimethylamine (TMA) sensing properties at a lower working temperature. The effects of Ce-doping on the trimethylamine sensing performance of MoO3 nanobelts were discussed based on the experimental results. In addition, this study provided insights and strategies for designing high performance TMA gas sensors.