A novel composite of -MoO₃/BiVO₄ for triethylamine selective detection

One-dimensional alpha-MoO3 nanorods were synthesized by a hydrothermal method and BiVO4 nanoparticles were grown directly onto the alpha-MoO3 nanorods using a simple metal organic decomposition process in order to construct an alpha-MoO3/BiVO4 composite with a heterojunction, for the fabrication of a rapid response triethylamine (TEA) sensor. The morphology and structure of the composite were characterized via various spectral techniques and the sensing properties of the sensor for TEA were investigated via resistance measurements. The results showed that the response of the 16Mo/Bi composite to 20 ppm TEA was 1.86 times and 15 times higher than those of alpha-MoO3 and BiVO4, respectively, at an optimum operating temperature of 125 degrees C. The enhancement can be ascribed to the existence of a heterojunction between alpha-MoO3 and BiVO4, creating an additional barrier at the interface of the heterojunction, and this increases the resistance of the composite in air and decreases the resistance in TEA, thus enhancing the response of the composite to TEA.