Enhancement of n-pentylamine gas sensing performance through regulating the crystal facet orientation of MoO3

Rui Li; Jing Tang; Qiuyue Zheng; Xianfa Zhang; Xin Dong; Lihua Huo; Yingming Xu; Xiaoli Cheng

doi:10.1007/s00604-025-07331-6

Enhancement of n-pentylamine gas sensing performance through regulating the crystal facet orientation of MoO₃

Mikrochim Acta. 2025 Jul 5;192(8):483. doi: 10.1007/s00604-025-07331-6.

Authors

Rui Li^#¹, Jing Tang^#¹, Qiuyue Zheng¹, Xianfa Zhang¹, Xin Dong¹, Lihua Huo¹, Yingming Xu¹, Xiaoli Cheng²

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, 150080, China.
² Key Laboratory of Functional Inorganic Material Chemistry, Ministry of Education, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, Heilongjiang University, Harbin, 150080, China. chengxiaoli@hlju.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 40616604
DOI: 10.1007/s00604-025-07331-6

Abstract

N-pentylamine is a toxic, harmful, and flammable volatile organic compound (VOC), and its real-time and effective detection is essential to ensure production and life safety. Nevertheless, there have been few reports on the detection of n-pentylamine gas to date. Herein, two MoO₃ materials with different crystal facets orientations were successfully synthesized via a facile solvothermal method and strategic modulation of reaction solvents. At an operating temperature of 150 °C, the MoO₃ sensor with (040) crystal plane growth orientation exhibited an excellent response value of 212 and an extremely short response time (0.8 s) to 50 ppm n-pentylamine, which is about 3 times better than the MoO₃ sensor with (021) crystal plane growth orientation. Additionally, the sensors show superior linearity, reproducibility, and humidity resistance. The gas adsorption mechanisms on the material surfaces were elucidated through in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (in situ DRIFTS) characterization technique, XPS characterization analysis, and density functional theory (DFT) theoretical calculations. The results indicate that the exposed (040) crystal facets in MoO₃ show a superior adsorption affinity for n-pentylamine. This research further broadens the potential applications of gas sensors that detect volatile organic compounds.

Keywords: Crystal facet; DFT calculations; Gas sensor; MoO3; N-pentylamine.

Abstract

Grants and funding