High performance acetone sensor based on γ-FeO/Al-ZnO nanocomposites.

Ternary nanocomposites made of γ-iron oxide and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (γ-FeO/Al-ZnO NCs), with different metal oxides ratio (0%-100%) were prepared through a solvothermal sol-gel process. The synthesized materials were characterized by x-ray diffraction, UV-vis spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL), scanning electron microscope and BET analysis. Characterization results demonstrated that the ternary γ-FeO/Al-ZnO NCs are mainly constituted by γ-FeO and Al-ZnO individual phases, while structural and physical properties like surface area, pore size, optical band gap, PL and electrical conductivity were deeply affected by the composition of nanocomposite.